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By Matthew Rosenberg for LDR
The chair of a southern regional council says he is surprised by the number of available vacancies following a recent restructure.
Environment Southland disestablished 51 roles and created 56 new ones in a shake-up which impacted almost a quarter of staff this year.
When the proposal went live in February, a source told Local Democracy Reporting there were 鈥渓ots of tears鈥.
It has now been revealed 48 roles are yet to be filled, with the council indicating there鈥檚 no rush for some.Council chair Nicol Horrell said he was under the impression the figure was in the 20s, but didn鈥檛 think the vacancies were impacting the day-to-day running of the council.
鈥淲hen you go through a restructure, there鈥檚 always a wee bit of settling in. A lot of people have changed jobs, and that takes probably a little bit of time to settle down,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut overall, no, I don鈥檛 have any great concerns.鈥
Horrell said there were some positions the council wasn鈥檛 rushing to fill, and less people doing the work was positive from a ratepayer鈥檚 standpoint.
Environment Southland said in April it was creating 58 new roles as part of the restructure but has since changed that figure to 56.
As of Monday, there were three positions advertised on its website.
Council general manager people and governance Amy Kubrycht said some of the vacancies were being recruited under priority while others would be phased in under the long-term plan.
The council was using contractors, third party suppliers and secondments to help in areas where there were vacancies, Kubrycht said.
鈥淥ur people are continuing to deliver their work programmes and have been doing a great job as we transition to the new structure.鈥
The council previously said it would undertake a contestable selection and expression of interest process with open recruitment for unfilled positions.
If employees were unable to secure new roles within the restructure, they would be made redundant and receive a payout in accordance with employment agreements.
A proposal document from February showed there were 212 roles at the organisation.
鈥 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air