Defence Force cuts 'outrageous abuse of power'

The axing of 308 Defence Force military staff is an outrageous abuse of power and could not happen if they were covered by standard employment law, the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) says.

The force today announced 81 officers and 227 staff in other ranks would lose their jobs as part of a series of cuts intended to remove 1000 uniformed personnel and replace them with 500 civilian staff. A similar exercise was expected later in the year.

The "rebalancing" -- replacing uniformed roles with civilians -- involved offering roles that did not need military skills, training and experience to civilians.

The Defence Force has so far identified about 280 military roles that are to be given to civilians -- among them drivers, instructors, photographers, logistics and administrative personnel.

Military personnel being released will be strongly encouraged to apply for the new roles.

CTU president Helen Kelly said there had been special constitutional reasons why the Defence Force was not covered by employment law, but the restructuring was an outrageous abuse of power.

"It’s fine for the Defence Force to restructure, but to then make these workers apply for their own jobs on the open market is simply orchestrating what would be an unfair dismissal in any other normal business, and these men and women deserve more respect than that," she said.

She called on Defence Minister Wayne Mapp and Prime Minister John Key to step in and demand the axed staff be given priority for the civilian positions.

Labour defence spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway said the civilianisation process had been made no more transparent by today's announcement.

"At the moment there is no clear indication exactly how this cost-cutting exercise will impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of our defence forces, let alone how it will actually improve their performance," he said.

A spokesman for acting Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman would not comment, saying it was an operational matter for the Defence Force.

But Dr Mapp last week said the civilianisation process would allow the force to get "more work out of fewer people".

"One of the advantages of civilianisation is that you actually need fewer people to do the work, simply because they're able to stay in the jobs for longer periods of time and you don't have to take people out to do all sorts of military tasks."

Dr Mapp told a parliamentary select committee last week he would have preferred straight transfers from military to civilian roles, but that was not possible under the Defence Act.

Force chief Lieutenant General Rhys Jones said the decisions affected less than 5 percent of total military personnel and more than 9300 military staff were still available for operational requirements.

The force had determined which roles could be performed by civilians and the numbers of military personnel needed across its ranks, trades, and branches.

The cuts include 71 of 2119 from the navy, 155 of 4920 from the army and 82 of 2579 from the air force.

Lt Gen Jones said the force had a "robust support and retraining process in place on each camp and base to help these people make the transition from military to civilian life".

He told a parliamentary select committee last week there had been a dip in morale in the force over the past six months, particularly in the areas most likely to be affected.

Assistant chief of personnel Commodore Kevin Keat today said the job cuts would save $23 million in total because they would no longer have to pay the staffs' uniform allowance, accommodation assistance and health and dental care.