CCC faces $750,000 redundancy payout

SAM SACHDEVA

Last updated 05:00 03/05/2011

 

The Christchurch City Council could pay up to $750,000 in redundancy payouts to staff at its earthquake-hit facilities.

A decision on who will lose their jobs is expected by the end of this month.

The council said last week that 172 staff would be made redundant because of damage to its facilities, with plans to find new council jobs for up to half of those employees.

Of the job cuts, 156 were at the Queen Elizabeth II and Centennial sport and recreation centres, which are closed indefinitely after being severely damaged in the February quake.

Community services general manager Michael Aitken said the council completed its meetings with affected staff over the weekend, which went "as expected".

"People obviously knew what we were going to be talking about," he said. "It wasn't the most fun place to be."

He said employees had been asked for feedback on the council's plans by May 9.

Council officials would meet two days later to consider whether any changes were necessary, Aitken said. A decision on the number of redundancies would be made by the end of the month.

"It's a pretty tight timeline, but everybody will know if they have a job or not by then," he said.

Redundancy packages could cost up to $750,000, depending on how many staff could be re-employed within the organisation.

The council would "cope somehow" with the unplanned expenditure, he said.

"It's just another one of these costs which we have been hit with after the earthquake, but we've got these employment contracts and we have to honour them."

Aitken was not aware of any other planned redundancies, but said he could not rule out the possibility.