It's a grey day for those working at ACC in Hastings, as it confirms 37 will lose their jobs. Photo / Warren Buckland
It's a grey day for those working at ACC in Hastings, as it confirms 37 will lose their jobs. Photo / Warren Buckland
ACC has confirmed it will cut 37 jobs at its Hastings office as part of a nationwide restructure.
The Hawke's Bay city faces the biggest job cut impact of any place in the country as ACC moves to centralise its services to clients who have suffered non-severe injuries to fivemain hubs.
Over half of those at its Warren St office will lose their jobs, with staff numbers to go from 70 down to 33.
Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North and Timaru are the only other regions to see 10 or more job cuts, while some regions such as Greymouth, Masterton and Gisborne are getting a slight increase in staff numbers.
New roles will be created in ACC's five main hubs – Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin – to work with clients who do not usually need face-to-face support when recovering from injuries such as sprains, strains and fractures, which make up 94 per cent of claims.
ACC's chief operating officer Mike Tully said it had made a few changes to its proposed restructure after feedback from employees but that the majority of the plan was still in place.
"There were some really good alternative options suggested through the feedback from our people which meant we have made some changes to what was originally proposed in the consultation.
"One of the changes will see an additional 100 roles created due to feedback on our proposed numbers and the decision to include some of our temporary roles into our permanent workforce," Tully said.
"This will take the total number of people in our client service teams to approximately 1900."
Full transition of the new structure will be finished by June 1, 2020.
Full transition of the new structure will be finished by 1 June 2020 in Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland
Hastings and will be one the last to go through the restructure with other regions set to move to the new system from August 1.
National job numbers will increase from 1758 to 1972 by the end of the restructure.
Tully says the next step is an expression of interest process for affected employees, who will be offered either an appropriate role in the same location if one is available, or a similar role elsewhere if they are interested.
Where neither option is feasible, redundancy will be offered.
"We're creating a significant number of new roles but equally, as we've previously signalled, there will be some redundancies over the next 12 months.
"We will get a clearer picture of the numbers involved once the expressions of interest process is completed in July."
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the job losses were disappointing.
"I am working really closely with the region's leaders to attract national and international companies to Hawke's Bay.
"We are confident they will provide new opportunities for skilled workers in our region."
All ACC's 25 existing offices will remain open, and clients will continue to be able to access face-to-face support where it supports their recovery.
Tully says the changes are aimed at providing a faster, more flexible service that gives clients more options about the level of help they receive from ACC.
