The restructure put forward by general manager Phil Pinyon was approved by councillors in the confidential section of their August supplementary meeting on Monday night.

The recommended restructure went through almost unchanged except for a new position of manager of corporate projects, which councillors decided – after a lot of discussion – to hold off until at least February.

The role of a project manager would improve the delivery of major projects (such as the Bomen intermodal freight hub) and reduce the use of external consultants.

A media release from council yesterday afternoon said the adopted structure followed a period of review and discussion with councillors and senior staff that focused on ensuring any change to the structure resulted in greater efficiencies, productivity gains and a continued ability to meet community expectations with service levels and outcomes.

With some councillors and staff still haunted by upheavals caused by past major restructures, Councillor Kendall stressed the latest review – compulsory under the Local Government Act – was not drastic.

“There was a very major restructure under (former general manager) Phil Perram which in my opinion upset the apple cart too much, or caused too much disruption,” Cr Kendall said. 

“I am very happy with continual fine tuning of our structure.”

The media release said changes would help staff “within existing employee numbers” to continue to meet growing community expectations.

While obviously ruling out not increasing staff, the statement does not rule out job cuts.

Cr Kendall said he could not comment beyond saying there would not be significant change.

Southern region manager of the United Services Union, Gary Vann, said the first time he had heard about the restructure was when he was contacted by the media yesterday afternoon.

“I’ll get a couple of staff to chase it up in the next day or two and see what is going on,” Mr Vann said.

“I can’t say much because I don’t know anything about it.”

Council yesterday said consultation with staff and unions would now follow Monday night’s decisions.

One of the major features of the restructure is realignment of “like functions”, meaning movement of some roles from one directorate to another.

Some staff will change jobs, some positions will be re-evaluated and council hopes there will be a better balance between workloads of its directorates.

Cr Kendall said he could not give precise details of the changes because affected staff needed to be consulted first.