PSA Press Release
September 20, 2004

PSA opposes decision on CEG

The PSA opposed the government’s decision to disestablish the Department of Labour’s Community Employment Group and conveyed this message to the government, PSA national secretary Brenda Pilott said today.

“This is the wrong decision. The arguments presented to us don’t stack up as strong enough to create this level of disruption to people’s jobs and to community organisations who get grant funding,” she --said.

The PSA met with the Minister to express our serious concern. On behalf of our members in CEG we asked ministers to explain the rationale for the decision and made our own recommendations on what we considered was the appropriate course of action. We remain unconvinced and opposed to the decisions that Cabinet has made. We do, however, appreciate the formal recognition of that in the Cabinet decision.

“We are holding meetings with our members today. We’ll hear what they think about these decisions and we’ll work together on the actions they plan to take as a group.”

Brenda Pilott said the transition process was starting straight away and the PSA will be recommending to its members that they focus on working with the Department of Labour and the Ministry of Social Development to ensure that every PSA member in CEG retained employment.

“Both of these departments are very large employers and we are expecting the two chief executives to place all CEG staff in suitable work which uses their skills. We’ll be working closely with them on the change process. The PSA will be doing all we can to support and protect the jobs of our members at CEG and to support the delivery of essential funding to communities throughout New Zealand.”

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