Agency retains 175 positions following legal action from PSA
Health New Zealand is disestablishing over 1,800 roles in its Data and Digital team despite union protests over the agency's cybersecurity.
Sonny Taite, chief information technology officer at Health NZ, confirmed in an announcement that the agency is cutting a total of 1,815 current roles, including 758 vacant positions.
The cuts also include 447 disestablished roles where affected employees were given redeployment offers, as well as another 610 roles where staff were given an opportunity to participate in an expression of interest for 651 new positions.
"We currently have more roles available in the digital team than people, and we are committed to enabling as many staff as possible to be retained or redeployed into roles in this team and elsewhere in the organisation," Taite said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the chief IT officer said they are also retaining 1,460 roles nationally.
This is 175 higher than what was originally proposed, following legal action from the Public Service Association (PSA).
But the PSA said the remaining cuts across Health NZ remain "too deep and too wide."
"These cuts are dangerous – they threaten patient care and ignore the risks of sensitive patient information falling prey to cyber-attacks," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi, in a statement.
The cuts came after Health NZ confirmed earlier this year a data breach where a malicious actor gained unauthorised access to staff occupational health and safety records across two Central region districts.
"Now more than ever, Te Whatu Ora should be retaining a much larger workforce of highly skilled data and digital experts, but it's bowing to pressure from the Government to slash numbers with little regard to consequences," Fitzsimons said.
The PSA previously urged the Privacy Commissioner to review Health NZ's IT cuts, but was refused.
"The PSA remains deeply concerned that sensitive patient information will be at greater risk from cybersecurity breaches because of these cuts," Fitzsimons said. "We urge the Privacy Commissioner to reconsider his refusal to investigate these changes before they are set in concrete."
