People cannot be redundant!
• It was with curiosity that I read the explanations given by the Mayor and Chief Executive for the staff lay-off's from the Ruapehu District Council and it struck me that apart from trite remarks of regret, how impersonal was the whole affair. No comment about any steps that might be undertaken to provide counselling or assistance in canvassing other employers in the District for job vacancies. Could it be that Council feels that they are absolved from any further responsibility to the people concerned other than heaving a sigh of relief? As a not unhappy vic-
tim of a management decision to 'disestablish' my position as Ohakune Service Centre Administration Officer I wish to take issue with the term 'redundancies' as used by the aforementioned worthy gentlemen. There is an excellent publication from the Industrial Chaplaincy called 'Survival - A Redundancy Guide' inside which is a statement made by Malcon Levene which is a very acceptable interpretation of redundancy - I quote: "People cannot actually be redundant. They can be wrong for a job, their jobs can disappear from undemeath them, their firm may have to contract for financial reasons, but I
submit that one cannot actually be redundant. One is a person fresh out of a job and a person who needs to be re-lo-cated in a new job but one remains a person, not an empty space where a person once was". I contend, Messrs Houston and Workman, that it is a question of attitude that makes a good employer and a company that apparently regards 18 of it's staff to be 'empty spaces' would seem to lack the necessary attitude. When the Ruapehu District Council comprehends that positions or jobs become redundant, not the people who occupied them it may lead to an atmosphere of stability and pride within the organisation and not one of helpless servitude due to economic need. Otherwise, to use another quote, 2,000 years old - "As ye sow, so shall ye reap".
S
Kine.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/RUBUL19930720.2.18.1
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Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 495, 20 July 1993, Page 4
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333People cannot be redundant! Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 495, 20 July 1993, Page 4
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