Grant Robertson

Wellington, April 26 NZPA - A Justice Ministry proposal to slash jobs has been roundly condemned, with both the Labour Party and the country's largest union saying it will cause further court delays.

Ministry staff have been sent a restructuring paper outlining a proposal to cut 88 jobs within the courts and create 51 new positions.

Labour state services spokesman Grant Robertson said the proposed cuts would create delays in the court system.

He said the cuts were "yet more evidence of broken election promises from the National government".

"Almost everyday we are hearing of further job cuts in the public sector."

Prime Minister John Key promised to cap, not cut public service jobs and had broken that promise, Mr Robertson said.

"This proposal takes out people whose job it is to manage the case load in a number of courts across New Zealand.

"Ordinary Kiwis who have been experiencing delays in the justice system and court processes can expect these to become worse."

Public Service Association national secretary Richard Wagstaff said cutting positions at the ministry would be a crazy move when courts already had a backlog of outstanding cases.

He says PSA members were surprised at the extent of what was proposed and doubted that the courts could continue to meet demand without any cuts.

The ministry needed more staff members, not fewer and the union would oppose the proposal.

A ministry spokesman said no final decisions had been made, and no frontline staff would be lost.

A number of the 88 positions were already vacant and the ministry was keen to retain staff whose jobs were disestablished.

Staff have a fortnight to comment on the proposal.

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