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There are fears 70 job cuts announced as part of a restructuring of the Accident Compensation Corporation will impact on the remaining staff workload and delivery of services to the public.
ACC on Wednesday announced proposals to reorganise a number of teams based in its corporate office.
Affected staff and the Public Service Association (PSA) had been advised of the proposals, as had all other ACC employees, said ACC chief executive Jan White.
PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said the jobs being axed are the latest in a growing list of jobs being cut in the public sector.
"We estimate that this brings the total of public sector jobs cut by the Government to around 1470," he said.
"The alarming thing is that the Government is cutting public sector jobs at a time when the demand for public services is increasing.
"This is increasing the workload of public sector workers which threatens to undermine the delivery of public services."
ACC expects to complete the consultation process by the middle of June, and have changes in place in July.
Already ACC has removed 150 contractor roles from the business.
White said with the proposed changes, a total of about 180 positions will be affected but many of those people would move into new roles. However, the new structures will have about 70 fewer positions than previously existed.
"These proposals are being driven by three factors," White said.
"First, we always need to ensure that we operate in the most efficient way possible, while still meeting the needs of our clients.
"Second, the proposed new structures would better support changes to some other parts of our business, including putting more focus on the front line where we are adding another 100 roles. They also recognise the fact that some programmes of work have been completed, de-scoped or stopped.
"Lastly, we are conscious of the impact of the current recession and the expectations of the government and the community that ACC should always deliver value for money," said White.
Wagstaff said ACC staff had a huge workload handling 1.8 million accident compensation claims a year.
"Will they still be able to handle that workload with fewer staff?" he asked.
Labour's state services spokesman, Grant Robertson, said the ACC cuts brought the total number of public sector job losses this year to about 1200.
"These are real people with families to support and this announcement further undermines National's claim that protecting jobs is a priority for this Government," he said.
