Mayor Gary Petley think much of the negative reaction to the restructure is because of misinformation. Photo: Libby Kirkby-McLeod / RNZ
The Public Service Association is claiming South Waikato District Council has breached its obligations to act in good faith during a recent restructure, but the chief executive said it's just a case of hurt feelings.
The council is proposing one of the largest rate rises in the country at 18.5 percent and has made eight people redundant as it looks for ways to run more efficiently.
PSA organiser Kirstin Miller, who has been supporting union members, said she had never seen anything like the South Waikato District Council's complete disregard of process through the restructure.
This was despite the union approaching the council back in February when rumours began to circulate, she said.
"When they did formally notify us, they emailed us on the Friday, said can you come the a meeting on the Monday morning; we went on the Monday morning and they were advising staff on that afternoon," Miller said.
She believes the council has clearly failed to act in good faith and be a fair and reasonable employer through the process.
"By the time they were talking with us on that Monday morning, they had already had a series of one-on-one meetings with some of the affected staff, not offering them any kind of support at those meetings, and telling them that basically their positions were going to be disestablished."
In feedback to the council, the PSA noted the restructure appeared to propose a significant reduction in front-line and community services with little explanation.
A former staff member, who has been made redundant, said the process felt unfair.
They said they had not been given a good reason why they were not redeployed into a role, which included a part of the job they had been doing for six years.
"I've worked in local government for 35 years. To walk away now is really really difficult. It's been a vocation for me, not just a job. We are here to serve the people and I don't think the new structure is going to serve the community very well," they said.
South Waikato mayor Gary Petley said a restructure was not a governance issue.
When chief executive Susan Law was employed she was given the direction to reorganise the council, he said.
Law said she flagged a restructure to staff from the moment she arrived a year ago.
She said she believes that the union was informed at the appropriate time.
"What you are talking about is the very sharp end, the implementation end, of a very lengthy consultation," Law said.
One or two staff did have discussions with their managers early on about their jobs being affected, she said, but she refutes the union claim that staff were unable to be represented at these meetings.
"While we didn't say so expressly, we did flag with people that if they wanted to bring someone they could do so and many of them did."
Asked why she did not bring the union in earlier, Law reminded RNZ that she was once an executive committee member of the PSA so knew the right processes.
And regardless, Law said, she was the chief executive and the restructure was her job, not the union's.
The restructure aims to reshape the council to focus on 'relentless service delivery', she said.
Petley said there has been much discussion, upset, and accusations about the restructure within the South Waikato community. He thought this was mostly due to misinformation.
Asked if she could have done anything differently to avoid this, Law was resolute.
"If I responded to gossip and rumour out there in the community, if the council responded to gossip and rumour out there in the community, we'd be showing no leadership what so ever."
The Public Service Association said it was considering its options for taking future action against the council on behalf of affected staff.