12 January

‘Over-the-top’ criticism of the performance bonuses paid to some Child Youth and Family Services staff was ‘further evidence of the agenda of some people to continue to try and stigmatise and downgrade this essential public service,’ the PSA says.

The bonus payments are ‘nothing new’ and are simply one part of the department’s overall pay system. ‘They are performance-based and will stand any fair analysis or scrutiny – something we haven’t seen yet,’ PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said today.

‘While the Rodney Hyde’s and Merepeka Raukawa-Tait’s of this world may be happy to follow this on-going negative path, they must also accept it is dangerous and counter-productive,’ Wagstaff said.

‘They are only making things harder for social workers to do their job by creating a situation where the confidence their clients have is unnecessarily eroded.’

‘The depressing tragedies we, as a country, have been faced with are not alleviated or addressed in any positive way by Rodney Hyde’s self-serving grandstanding and shallow points scoring,’ he said.

‘The New Zealand public now understands, more than ever, the almost unlimited demands frontline CYFS staff face and the issues of workloads, staff levels and retention, training and funding they operate under,’ he said.

The PSA has been working with the Department at all levels around these issues and much has already been done that will be of lasting benefit to CYFS staff and the communities and people they work for, he said.

‘People must also understand that much of the very good work done by social workers in particular is, by its very nature, unseen and unrecognised,’ Wagstaff said.

‘That is probably as it should be, but of course these “successes” don’t make the headlines,’ he said.

For more comment or information please call
the PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff on 025 2778131
or the media officer Colin Williams on 025 575839.

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