MSD voluntary redundancies  

We’ve let our people know today we will be offering voluntary redundancy as part of the next steps towards reaching our cost savings commitments.

As part of Budget 2024 the Government has asked the public service to find $1.5 billion a year in savings. At MSD, we’ve been asked to find savings of 6.5% for the next financial year, starting 1 July. This is in addition to what we were already doing to reduce our expenditure, absorb cost pressures and implement $87 million in savings over four years as part of Budget 2023.

To date we have taken a range of measures to save costs, including reducing our use of contractors and consultants; reducing our workforce numbers by not replacing roles as people leave unless absolutely necessary; and reducing costs on travel and consumables.

While final savings decisions will be made as part of May’s Budget 2024 announcements, like many other agencies, we are now taking the step of looking at how we might reduce our workforce numbers.

We will begin by offering people in some parts of our organisation the choice of voluntary redundancy. People will be able to apply until April 15. At this stage we don’t have a specific target of how many voluntary redundancies we are seeking. Those in frontline roles will not be able to apply for voluntary redundancy.

After this voluntary redundancy process, it is likely there will be a further process targeting role reductions in some areas, mainly within our National Office in Wellington. We will be able to provide more details on this process to our people in May.

This is a difficult time for staff. We will continue to keep our people updated as our cost savings initiatives progress.

Nadine Kilmister, Deputy Chief Executive, People and Capability, Ministry of Social Development