Hundreds of more jobs proposed to go to Health NZ, says Union

Photo: RNZ / Quin Tauetau

Hundreds of more jobs are proposed to go to Health NZ, says the PSA union, and affected employees say they feel discouraged, exhausted and anxious.

Health NZ confirmed that it was consulting the team about proposed changes for its people and culture team. RNZ understands that it also proposed the restructuring of its communications department.

The public service association said the Health NZ proposed to cut 338 roles in the team of people and culture from 1632 to 1294.

RNZ approached Health NZ to comment and asked to confirm these numbers.

People and the culture team serve more than 80,000 employees.

Several NZ Health employees, whom RNZ agreed not to name, detailed a dark humor and is concerned with having to do more with less.

An employee said the team was “shocked”.

“We just don’t know how the headquarters really plan to support the lines head on,” they said.

Another said the employees were feeling “very discouraged, exhausted, burned and disheveled.”

They said the team had “serious incidents and emerging risks coming out of our ears,” but was losing resources to deal with them.

A third employee said people were “incredibly anxious, frustrated, and somewhat discouraged.”

“Many of the affected people have undergone several restructures in the last two years,” they said.

“For many teams and papers, the workload was already unsustainable, so it is worrying to see that there is a change to a ‘more for less’ structure.”

The information shared with the team and seen by RNZ said that the communication and engagement team budget was mainly composed of team costs and had to save $ 3.1 million.

“Based on an initial assessment, we do not consider it possible to obtain the necessary cost savings without reducing the number and structure of our teams and the number of employees in C&E,” he said.

He proposed to make the roles more “generalist” and do more work internally instead of outsourcing things like graphic design and videoography.

But Health NZ was open to feedback and team ideas, and no decision was made, he said.

Union considering the legal action

In a statement about the proposal for restructuring people and culture, the national secretary of the Fleur Fitzsimons public services association said the union was considering a legal challenge.

The team’s work was vital to ensure that there were enough health professionals and that they were supported, safe and paid properly, she said.

“These cuts are just otherwise that the reckless impulse without government focuses to the economy will affect the care that the New Zealandes will receive.

“The PSA is seeking legal counseling on whether it would also challenge this proposal of change in labor relations authority.”

Fleur Fitzsimons.
Photo: RNZ / SAMUEL RILLSTONE

The restructures proposed in four other NZ Health departments have already been the subject of a legal PSA challenge.

These plans should be examined by the Employment Relations Authority at April 22 and 23, unless the Health NZ and the PSA reached an agreement in advance.

Cuts to help manage billions of dollars

At the end of last year, Health NZ’s expected deficit for 2024-25 was $ 1.1 billion and a change was needed to “live within the budget”, then the chief executive Margie APA.

A Deloitte independent financial review, released last month, found that the agency had lost control of spending.

He talked about “missing” plans, noted notices and that “there was never adhesion” of operational teams to get economies, even when financial problems appeared.

But it also said that some factors in the budget explosion were out of the agency’s control – including the 30 % increase in nurses’ salaries in three years.

On the same day the report was released, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced a major health system review, including the restriction of a council and the “partnership” with the private sector.

NZ health productivity was decreasing despite the growth of the workforce and central operational financing, almost folding between 2014 and 2024, he said.

Fitzsimons said the fact that health New Zealand was cutting jobs to save money by showing that the system needed “much greater financing.”

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