PSA Media Release
[Date Here]
PSA MEDIA RELEASE
15 March 2012
For Immediate Use

Key’s public sector revolution will fail if workforce disarmed in process

The Government’s plans to re-shape the state sector will fall flat if yet more job cuts and restructures leave workers unable to implement the potential gains, says the PSA.

“The PSA has been calling for a more joined-up and responsive public service for years but if John Key’s revolution is simply more job cuts and restructures in disguise it could do more harm than good,” says Brenda Pilott National Secretary PSA.

“Research shows that staff are 20% less productive after major restructurings because it is so disruptive and demoralising.

“If the Government is sincere about a more joined-up, responsive public service it must consider the workforce in its plan. Staff need certainty to be innovative.

“The Prime Minister promised that any mergers would need to meet a high hurdle, it’s questionable whether this new ministry of business, innovation and employment meets that. There is no obvious logic to the combination of functions.

“A state sector has been in a state of flux for years and it’s been the object of public ridicule under this Government. These conditions do nothing to support innovation.

“If John Key wants a dynamic state sector, his first task is to lift staff out of survival mode, because he needs them.

“Ordinary workers who respond to public demands are John Key’s revolutionaries, not chief executives. They’re the ones with the ideas to build better co-operation across departments and deliver better services to New Zealanders.

“We’ve seen the results in departments like Defence, where morale is at an eight-year low, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where the government is backpedalling on a radical restructure.

“It’s time to invest in public not private services and in those who deliver those services to the public,” says Brenda Pilott.

ENDS

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