We will begin by offering people in some parts of our organisation the choice of voluntary redundancy. People will be able to apply until April 15. At this stage we don’t have a specific target of how many voluntary redundancies we are seeking. Those in frontline roles will not be able to apply for voluntary redundancy.
After this voluntary redundancy process, it is likely there will be a further process targeting role reductions in some areas, mainly within our National Office in Wellington.
Of course, opposition parties, left-wing media and unions are describing these cuts as cruel and disgraceful.
But has anyone looked at the growth that has preceded these cuts?
In 2018, according to their annual report, MSD had “6,725 full-time-equivalent staff positions”.
By 2023 that had grown to “9,329 full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff positions”.
That’s a 39 percent growth in full-time staff.
RNZ is reporting that MSD is “calling for mass voluntary redundancies.” The word “mass” does not appear anywhere in the MSD release. That’s RNZ’s own invention. If it was possible to achieve “mass” redundancies in affected areas, apparently “human resources, policy, strategy and communications” that indicates those departments are well and truly over-staffed anyway.
Looking at MSD’s core responsibilities it is fair to say the extra 39% staff added in the last 5 years has achieved no improvement.
Their key message is, “We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent.”
Yet there are many more people on benefits (including more children in benefit-dependent households) and people are staying dependent longer. And it would be a stretch too far to claim that people are feeling safer.
What is disappointing is that the staff cuts (like those across the whole public service) will not take levels back to where they were in 2017/18 (with possible allowance for population growth). They will merely continue the growth of government in the entrenched 3 steps forward – 1 step back pattern that has become all too familiar over many decades.
Lindsay Mitchell is a welfare commentator who blogs HERE. - where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
I've yet to figure out what MSD staff actually do. In my experience, they outsource the task of finding work to other tax payer funded entities like Workbridge, Workforce Development, Upskill etc that seem to do little more than write CVs & email you about jobs you've already seen on Trademe & Seek etc. Not once have I been assigned a Case Manager yet I have numerous people from different agencies emailing me exactly the same useless information repeatedly. The entire system appears to be staffed by people who are merely after a pay cheque. None of them seem to have a clue or any interest in what they're doing & when you press them to provide some tangible form of assistance, they run for cover. In all, my experience with MSD has been distasteful & given that wait times for phone calls are an hour or more & in person appointments take over a week to happen, the entire process is a frustrating waste of time...
Those that should go, those whose days are spent in maorification of all within their reach, will not, as suddenrly a diminishing empire for their basicaly useless employ.
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