Willis asked by public servants to ‘repair damage’

Wednesday, 25 September 2024

The Public Service Association held its conference in Wellington.

Public Service Minister Nicola Willis has been asked to repair the “damage” done in the public service and for the Government to tone down “dehumanising” language aimed at public servants.

Willis delivered a speech to the public service union in Wellington on Wednesday - just two days after public servants were told they should be working from the office, and that data on the number of working from home arrangements would start to be collected.

Media were not allowed into the Public Service Association (PSA) conference held in Te Papa, but applause could be heard from outside. Willis also took questions from delegates.

On the way into the conference, Willis was asked what reception she thought she may receive.

“Oh, well, look, someone on Twitter has been talking about eggs,” she said.

Nicola Willis announces plans to make public service employees work from the office.

“But look, my experience to date with the Public Service Association is we've had respectful, constructive engagement.”

After the speech, Willis said it was her job “to present clearly the government's agenda, to make that obvious point that we wish to engage constructively and positively with unions, the value that we place on public sector workers, and all of those messages were well received”.

“I was treated very well, we had good questions, and I was grateful to be able to impart information that I'm not sure that everyone in that room had heard before.”

PSA national secretary Kerry Davies described the room as “very sombre, but it also had a sense of people feeling really determined and really proud of the work that they do, and wanting to get that message across to the minister”.

“This has been one of the most challenging governments that they've had to work with in terms of the direct attacks on the services that they provide.”

Davies said delegates “listened with respect, but they also were very strongly of the view and made it very clear that they are standing up for public services”.

“There was questions about rebuilding the damage that's been done, particularly about the denigrating language that has been used by some leaders, political leaders, talking about dehumanising comments.”

The minister was asked “to repair some of that damage and to speak up publicly in favour of the work that people do”.

It comes after thousands of job cuts and just days after a crackdown on public servants working from home.

The conference description stated there was a “high level of uncertainty and anxiety among PSA members”, around what it described as the Government’s “agenda to cut jobs across the public sector”.

Willis on Monday issued new guidance to make it clear “that working from home is not an entitlement and must be agreed and monitored”.

Delegates were given the opportunity to ask Willis questions.

Willis said while many public servants were “working incredibly hard, very productive, and are doing a great job”, she had more than one public servant come to her to raise “their worry about the damage widespread working from home arrangements has had on their workplace culture and the performance of their team”.

“Here in Wellington, you only have to walk down Lambton Quay on a Monday or Friday, observe the fluctuation and the number of people swiping into offices each day, or talk to a café owner to see the impact,” Willis said.

“The underlying tone is that performance matters, and actually doing your job is the most important thing, and then your arrangements come secondary to that.”

PSA national secretary Duane Leo said it was “the Government’s reckless decisions to axe thousands of public service jobs are what is hammering the Wellington economy, not working from home”.

Willis is not the only politician at the conference, with Labour’s deputy Carmel Sepuloni and Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick also appearing on Wednesday.

So far, the tally of total public service roles cut hovers around 6000 - that includes those confirmed or proposed to go, roles left vacant that were cut and some roles in Crown research institutes.

Roles ranged from top jobs such as DOC’s chief science adviser, lawyers at Oranga Tamariki, and positions within Customs’ detector dog unit.

Willis has said she expects savings and re-prioritisations “will be a business-as-usual activity for all ministers so that we can put the books back in order”.

“We have gone line-by-line through existing Government spending to ensure precious taxpayer dollars are going to their best purpose. That review has freed up $5.86 billion on average per year across more than 240 individual savings and revenue initiatives.”