PSA MEDIA RELEASE July 9, 2008 For Immediate Use

PSA Alarmed Auckland Museum Has Shed 46 Staff As A Result of Restructuring

The Public Service Association is alarmed that the Auckland Regional Museum has shed 46 staff through redundancies and voluntary severance as a result of large scale restructuring.

"We're alarmed that 46 staff have gone because the museum's director has never clearly explained the need for this large scale restructuring," says Warwick Jones, Assistant National Secretary of the PSA, which has 54 members at the museum..

Figures given to the staff state that there were 165 staff at the museum at the start of the restructuring.

"Those figures mean the museum has shed more than a quarter of its staff and no one is sure why," says Warwick Jones.

"Staff were told that the restructuring was not budget driven and that it was all about changing the way the museum is seen."

"We want to know how that goal has been achieved by shedding the knowledge and skills of 46 staff," says Warwick Jones.

The PSA believes the restructuring process has been very badly handled.

"The museum has dedicated, hard-working staff who are not opposed to change," says Warwick Jones.

"But the museum has failed to explain what it's trying to achieve and why this level of restructuring was necessary."

"We believe the museum should be working constructively with its staff to achieve it's goals rather than throwing away years of knowledge and a wide range of skills by removing more than a quarter of its staff," says Warwick Jones.

ENDS

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