Staff attrition at WorkSafe has been running at almost 30 percent for the past six months. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
There are "critical" internal health and safety risks at WorkSafe, with very high staff turnover and a stalled restructure.
The restructure is the second in a few months, with the first cutting 128 jobs at the 700-strong agency in February, and staff are now in limbo.
Their main union is also raising the possibility of further job cuts.
"The People, Health and Safety risk remains critical due to the uncertainty for kaimahi regarding the organisation's structure," according to the agency's latest quarterly report.
"This has created higher turnover and purposefully unfilled vacancies."
The report, for the three months ending 30 June - said staff attrition had been running at almost 30 percent for the past six months, although this was partly due to the cuts in February.
The second restructure is now overdue, and has been caught up in pre-consultation talks with the PSA union.
"PSA have been fully briefed on the upcoming change proposal," WorkSafe said today.
The PSA said it was "concerned that job losses are being proposed by WorkSafe".
"We do not agree this is necessary. We believe WorkSafe can achieve a more efficient structure without the loss of jobs," it told RNZ.
But WorkSafe said while it had not made any decisions about its structure, it was considering "various options".
The workplace health and safety regulator began axing jobs and shedding activities, after reporting a $17 million deficit last year.
It has reversed that with a $3m surplus for the year to July, and hit 13 out of 13 of its targets, despite spending $1.8m less on delivering services, its quarterly report said.
It was a period when changes were "expected to positively influence some of the strategic risks", said the report.
WorkSafe now says its second restructure proposal will go out late this month, and staff will be the first to know.
"We will have a number of support options available to kaimahi."
Part of the uncertainty around the restructure is due to a successful union legal challenge to lack of consultation in a restructure at the Ministry of Education. Another challenge has succeeded at TVNZ.
"The original timing for our upcoming organisational change proposal was deferred due to pre-consultation engagement with the PSA in line with the recent Ministry of Education determination," WorkSafe said today.
The PSA said WorkSafe was required to work with its members, who wanted input on the new structure.
The uncertainty has been compounded by a health and safety sector review by minister Brooke van Velden.
WorkSafe has just introduced a new strategy and new six-point priority plan - but it does not yet have a new way to deliver them, a year since its first restructure began.
A new shape is emerging of a pared-back agency trying to bolster its investigation and legal resources.
Its quarterly report said 18 out of 20 recommendations in a baseline review had been done. It also has a new chief executive and three new directors.
Staff numbers had "stabilised" at 595, which is 20 percent lower than last year.
The organisation's surplus was helped by spending $6m less on staff than budgeted for, and re-jigging its IT overhaul.
While back-office cuts have carried on, adding bodies to the front-line has been harder - front-line inspector numbers have stalled at about 200.
A recent review of its prosecution function found the load on inspectors translated into rushed deadlines for the capable legal team.
The agency spent $1.8m less on core delivery than expected, "due to more vacancies and greater attrition during the organisational change, and strong cost controls".
But some things that previously were a priority have been halted, including a long-delayed overhaul of ineffective regulations to try to make plant - machines, vehicles - safer; and a reduced focus on work-related transport deaths and injuries, after saying in 2020 it would pay more attention to this.
The ACC-funded programme has already shrunk by almost $4m, reducing a funding stream for some industry organisations that partnered with WorkSafe. However, ACC has said it may pick those up when it takes back the programme, which significantly undershot its goals.
