Hundreds of Dunedin City Council staff have resigned during a sometimes torrid four-year period for the organisation.
A breakdown released by the council, following an official information request, showed 460 of its full- and part-time staff had resigned since the start of 2012, while a further 21 had been made redundant.
The highest turnover from redundancies came in 2012, when 156 staff walked away, while results for subsequent years hovered around the 100 mark.
The release of the figures came in the wake of the $1.5 million Citifleet fraud, discovered in 2014, which led to the departure of five council staff - three who resigned and two who lost their jobs.
It also followed a series of restructuring drives within the council, and came after the Otago Daily Times recently reported staff morale was taking a hammering as criticism and upheaval fuelled a ‘‘culture of fear''.
Council staff spoken to blamed the morale problems on restructuring, tighter controls and a tougher line by some managers, which were said to have driven some staff out of the organisation.
The council has declined to release the results of its latest staff satisfaction survey, and on December 1 responded to the ODT's initial request for staff redundancy figures by extending the timeframe for a release.
The figures, since released, also showed the number of sick days taken by staff was climbing, having risen from 3862 in 2012 to 4274 in 2015, during a period when overall staff numbers were declining.
Another 26 staff had retired during the period, 137 staff on fixed-term contracts had reached the end of their employment, and six other staff had died while still working for the council, the figures showed.
The numbers compared to the council's total count of 656 full-time-equivalent positions, spread across 868 full and part-time staff.
DCC staff statistics
Resignations
2012: 156
2013: 110
2014: 94
2015: 100
Redundancies
2012: 5
2013: 3
2014: 8
2015: 5
Sick days
2012: 3862.14
2013: 3884.84
2014: 3932.39
2015: 4274.49
