Ministry for Environment opens up voluntary redundancies

Monday, 8 April 2024

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has opened up voluntary redundancies as part of the Government’s moves to streamline the public service to cut costs.

MfE’s deputy secretary business, Laura Dixon, said “while the impact of the savings exercise on our work programme and jobs won’t be clear until after Budget 2024… we know our organisation will need to reduce in size”.

“Staff have been told redundancies are likely.”

Dixon said from today, “staff will have the opportunity to submit an expression of interest (EOI) for voluntary redundancy, before a likely formal change proposal and consultation process later this year”.

“Staff will be able to submit an expression of interest until midday, 19 April. We have no specific target in mind, and our executive leadership team, Te Pūrengi, retains full discretion over whether to accept any EOI.”

Last month, staff were told redundancies were likely, even after slashing senior environment management positions by a quarter last December.

The ministry has advised staff “that it is probable that we will need to go through a process to resize our organisation in line with the Government’s financial savings targets and our decreasing baseline, and that redundancies are likely as a result”, a spokesperson said.

“We won’t know how many roles may be impacted until the Government finalises its Budget 2024 at the end of May.”

The ministry had been tasked with rolling out some of the biggest environmental shifts amid the climate crisis, under the guidance of chief executive James Palmer.