Dunedin City Council staff facing job transfers under a waste and water services proposal have been ''fobbed off'', the Amalgamated Workers Union New Zealand says.
Thirty water and wastewater technicians will be employed by a contractor if the council's executive management team approves a proposal to outsource their jobs in an effort to save money.
The roles of a further two council staff will change under the proposal.
Of those affected, 28 were members of the Amalgamated Workers Union New Zealand Southern branch.
Union representative Stephen Scandrett, of Dunedin, said workers were dismayed by the council's ''clinical and contradictory manner'' in publicly releasing details of the proposal this week.
Many of the affected staff had been long-serving council employees and were made to feel ''like a commodity'', he said.
''They are and have been extremely loyal to this council. They are a highly skilled and qualified workforce working in an environment of deferred capital expenditure, no positive direction and a management structure that has ballooned.''
The council gave affected staff its proposal on Thursday and after initially scheduling a media briefing for the same day, it was put off until Monday.
Mr Scandrett said water and wastewater workers had strong suspicions about their job security but information from the council had been vague.
''They were advised earlier that there was a possibility the maintenance would be contracted out. In recent weeks, without announcement, the workers have withstood audits of their gear and value assessments of their fleets, but when they asked questions about what was going on they were fobbed off. There was no real reason given for it.''
The union had expressed its concern to the council and was about to start negotiating a new collective agreement, to replace the agreement due to expire on July 1. Affected staff have until June 4 to comment on the council's proposal.
