As many as 120 jobs are on the line at WorkSafe as part of staff consultation at the workplace health and safety regulator.
Also announced today was the resignation of chief executive Phil Parkes.
In a statement WorkSafe said the proposals aim to streamline activities on the core functions New Zealand expects of the regulator.
WorkSafe said the proposals include a number of roles being disestablished and new roles being established.
It said while subject to change, roles within WorkSafe may reduce by between 100 and 120.
"We have recently been provided with additional ongoing funding to allow us to maintain victim services and coronial services through this change process. We have also been supported with additional cost pressure funding for the Whakaari litigation and new contingency funding, which we can draw on for unexpected events. This support means we don’t have to further reduce services, including at the frontline."
It said frontline inspectors and investigators would not be impacted.
"If a health and safety inspector is operating in a non-frontline role, and is impacted through the change, they will be offered redeployment to a frontline inspector role. This reflects our commitment to streamline our activities to our core functions."
Parkes had been at WorkSafe for nine years.
"It’s been a privilege to have worked with such a dedicated team who are committed to reduce work-related harm across Aotearoa."
Cuts 'hard to understand'
The Public Service Association criticised the job cuts.
"New Zealand already has a poor health and safety record, so it’s hard to understand how this plan will do anything but worsen that," national secretary Kerry Davies said.
"The PSA will be advocating strongly for WorkSafe to rethink what we see is a step in the wrong direction.
"This is the time to keep investing in workplace safety, not cutting back."
A report released last month found work-related harm in New Zealand cost the country $4.4 billion annually.
According to the State of a Thriving Nation report, New Zealand’s fatality rate in the workplace is where the United Kingdom was in the 1980s, and twice that of Australia.
It also found the number of WorkSafe inspectors had fallen from 8.4 per 100,000 workers in 2013, to 6.3 in 2023.
"We haven’t had enough inspectors for quite a long time, since WorkSafe started," report author, economist Shamubeel Eaqub, said.
"When we don't have a healthy and safe workplace, we have too many fatalities and injuries. We are killing people in the workplace."
Eaqub said any changes at WorkSafe must not impact its core task - enforcing the health and safety rules in workplaces.
"When we do reductions in head counts at places like WorkSafe, we can absolutely not reduce the number of inspectors," he said.
"In fact, we have to ramp them up because the fear and threat of those inspections will always be present for those businesses not doing the right thing."
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