Supercity staff get wrong jobs

Laila Harre. Photo / Greg Bowker

Some Auckland council staff were offered, and accepted, the wrong job or the wrong salary in the new Supercity this week.

Auckland Transition Authority HR adviser Laila Harre said that among 2000 letters sent out to staff at Auckland's eight councils this week were "a handful" that offered the wrong job or salary, because of a data mistake.

Harre, a former Alliance leader and Cabinet minister, has been criticised by her former union colleagues for "turning gamekeeper" by accepting the role overseeing appointments to the new council. Her contract ended this week. She did not know the number of people who had accepted the mixed-up offers but confirmed some had.

The Transition Authority is now processing correct offers and trying to explain the mess-up to affected council staff.

Public Service Association organiser Kerry Davies said the errors were being rectified following concerns raised by the association.

PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said a review process was built into the offers before the letters were sent out. It covered staff offered a salary below what they should be but Wagstaff was unsure if it applied to people who were offered a higher salary.

"We have been working with ATA to resolve the issue," he said. "We do recognise it has been a very compressed time frame and complex experience which contributes to mistakes."

Employment lawyer Bridget Smith, of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, said if the employee and council had already agreed a salary, the incorrect contracts could be corrected through the court.

"If the employee signed the agreement knowing the Supercity had made a mistake in the salary included, it may be possible for the Supercity to ask the court to change the contract to relieve it from the consequences of its mistake."

But if the employee didn't know it was a mistake and signed a contract for a higher salary, there would be a binding agreement, she said.

"It would not be relevant that the Supercity did not actually intend to offer this salary - unless, possibly, the salary was so 'out there' for the position that it could not possibly be correct," she said.

"Practically speaking, any challenge by the Supercity to contracts signed in good faith by employees would also be likely to leave a sour taste in the new employees' mouths."