Jobs to go in Town restructure

The Town of Port Hedland has revealed more than 30 full-time positions will be cut from the organisation in the coming weeks to create savings in the Town’s budget.

The new structure will entail a reduction in full-time positions from 208 employees last year to 175, which is expected to save the Town about $3 million a year in costs associated with salaries, superannuation, housing and other expenses.

Chief executive Mal Osborne said the restructure was appropriate given the Town was operating in an economic climate of reduced growth, fewer capital projects and lower general interest earnings.

“Every one of our business units has been reviewed and seen some changes — positions have merged, consumed additional responsibilities or reporting lines changed to see better alignment with service deliverables,” he said.

Mr Osborne said they were working with staff to implement the new structure and the transition process would continue to be rolled out over the coming weeks.

“Six positions have been offered redeployment opportunities or have been made redundant, the others are absorbed by vacancies,” he said.

“Initially there may be an increase in workload, however we are committed to complete a service-level review of our facilities and activities to see where the most efficient use of resources is.

“Employees who are affected are being offered outplacement services and support is available to all staff through the Town of Port Hedland’s Employee Assistance Program.”

Mr Osborne said the Town would continue to review service levels of all Town of Port Hedland facilities and activities over the next 12 months.