Strike To Save Auckland Citizen's Advice Bureaus

Citizens Advice Bureau Waitakere staff will stop work tomorrow when Auckland Council opens consultation on a budget which will close Auckland Citizen Advice Bureaus.

Citizens Advice Bureau Waitakere staff will stop work from 11:30 - 1:30 on Tuesday, 27 February, and hold a protest at the New Lynn Citizens Advice Bureau at 3 Memorial Drive, Lynn Mall.

Submissions on the Auckland Council's proposed budget open at noon during the strike.

The employees are Public Service Association (PSA) union members.

PSA Social Justice Sector Organiser Simon Oosterman says the council's proposal to close an essential service that supported Aucklanders during the recent cyclone and floods is outrageous.

"Citizens Advice Bureaus have been providing critical support to vulnerable community members for half a century," he says. "Citizens Advice Bureau managers were there when Aucklander's lives were turned upside down by flooding and couldn't get support elsewhere."

Oosterman says the bureaus help people navigate services and provide confidential support when they fall through the cracks, something Auckland Council and other services can't offer.

Most of Auckland Citizens Advice Bureau funding comes from two million dollars of Auckland Council funding.

"We must stop the Auckland Council's cuts to Citizens Advice Bureaus because independent research shows the social cost will be 13 times greater."

Striking employees will encourage Aucklanders to make online budget submissions and ask the council to save Citizens Advice Bureaus.

© Scoop Media