Redeployment in a Restructure: What You Can Be Offered and What You Can Refuse
Three words decide whether a redundancy payment survives a restructure: reconfirmation, reassignment and a comparable role. Under section 88 of the Public Service Act the offer of a comparable State services position can remove the payment whether or not you accept it. This guide sets out what each term means, what refusing costs, and the sums to run before you answer.
Three words that decide the money
A restructure produces three kinds of offer, and the money attached to each is different. Reconfirmation means your role continues in the new structure, in the same or very nearly the same form, and you are placed in it. Reassignment, which most people call redeployment, means you are moved into a different role you are suitable for, possibly at a different grade. A comparable position is the term the Public Service Act uses, and it decides whether a redundancy payment survives an offer. The words come from your agreement and the Act, and they are worth learning before the letter arrives, because answering the wrong one the wrong way can cost the payout.
The Land Information New Zealand and PSA collective agreement shows how one public service agreement handles this. Clause 10.4.1 says a surplus staffing situation exists when, after a review and the consultation, the employer needs fewer employees, or employees can no longer be employed in their current position, grade or location. Clause 10.5.1 then says the employer may, following consultation and agreement with the PSA, either reconfirm affected employees in the same or a similar position, or reassign them to an alternative position for which they are suitable. Redundancy is what happens when neither of those is available.
Reconfirmation has criteria, and they are stricter than most people expect. Under clause 10.6.3 of the same agreement, an employee is to be reconfirmed where there is one clear candidate and the new position description is the same or very nearly the same as what the employee does now, the salary is the same, the terms and conditions including career prospects are no less favourable, and the location is the same, which the clause says need not mean the same building or street. If more than one person is a clear candidate for the position, clause 10.6.4 requires the employer to consult with the PSA on how to decide.
The clauses quoted here are from one collective agreement. Yours may use different words and different criteria, and the Public Service Act rule below applies only to public service employees. Read your own agreement's restructuring clause, and get advice from your union or a lawyer before you accept or refuse anything.
What you can refuse, and what it costs
Under a collective agreement the question is whether the role you are offered meets the agreement's own definition. A reconfirmation that meets the clause 10.6.3 criteria is not really an offer; it is a placement, and refusing it is closer to resigning than to being made redundant. A reassignment to a role that is different, lower graded or in another place is an offer, and refusing it usually leaves you in the surplus staffing situation the agreement then resolves with redundancy. Some agreements protect the old salary for a period after a reassignment to a lower grade; check the reassignment clause in yours, because the length of that protection changes the sums below.
In the public service the Act adds a rule that sits above the agreement. Section 88(1) of the Public Service Act 2020 says a public service employee who has received a notice of termination by reason of redundancy is not entitled to a redundancy payment if, before their employment has ended, either of two things happens. The first is that they are offered and accept another State services position, anywhere in the State services, that begins before, on or immediately after the current position ends, on terms and conditions including redundancy and superannuation conditions that are no less favourable, and that treats State services service as continuous.
The second is the one to read twice. Under section 88(1)(b), the payment is also lost if the employee is offered an alternative State services position that begins before, on or immediately after the current one ends, has comparable duties and responsibilities, is in substantially the same general locality or within reasonable commuting distance, is on terms no less favourable including redundancy and superannuation conditions, and treats service as continuous. The subsection turns on the offer, not on acceptance. Refusing a position that meets all five limbs does not preserve the payment. Section 87(2) adds that a redundancy payment here includes any payment or benefit provided on the ground of the position being disestablished, and section 88(3) says the section overrides Part 6A of the Employment Relations Act.
| Offer | Under the LINZ and PSA agreement | Under section 88, public service |
|---|---|---|
| Reconfirmation in the same or nearly the same role, same salary, same location | A placement under clause 10.6; not a surplus staffing situation | Not a redundancy, so section 88 is not reached |
| Reassignment to a suitable alternative role | An offer under clause 10.5; refusal usually leads to redundancy | If it meets the five limbs of section 88(1)(b), the payment is lost whether or not you accept |
| Another State services role you apply for and accept before the last day | Outside the agreement's process | No redundancy payment if the terms are no less favourable and service is continuous |
| No suitable role | Redundancy under clause 10.16 | Payment stands |
What makes a role comparable
Section 88(1)(b) gives five tests and every one must be met: timing, duties and responsibilities, locality, terms and conditions, and continuity of service. Comparable duties and responsibilities is the one most often argued. A role at a lower grade with narrower responsibilities is not comparable; a role with the same responsibilities under a different title probably is. Substantially the same general locality or reasonable commuting distance is a question of fact, and an offer in another city is unlikely to meet it. Terms no less favourable includes the redundancy and superannuation conditions themselves, so a new role that carried a weaker redundancy clause would fail the test.
Comparable is not the same as reconfirmation. Reconfirmation under the agreement requires the same or very nearly the same position description and the same salary. A comparable position under the Act can have different duties as long as they are comparable, and can be with a different department entirely, as long as it is in the State services. A role can therefore be comparable enough to cancel the payment while not being similar enough to reconfirm you into. That gap is where advice is worth paying for.
The Employment Relations Act has a separate set of rules, in Part 6A, for restructurings where the work goes to a new employer through a sale, transfer or contracting out. Section 69OJ requires every employment agreement to contain an employee protection provision covering that case, and the Land Information New Zealand agreement's clause 10.17 is one. Section 88(3) of the Public Service Act overrides Part 6A for public service employees, so in a public service reorganisation the Act's rule wins.
The two questions to ask about any offer
Does this role meet my agreement's definition of reconfirmation or reassignment, and, if I am a public service employee, does it meet all five limbs of section 88(1)(b)? The first tells you what the agreement will do if you say no. The second tells you whether the payment exists at all.
Doing the sums before you answer
Where a redundancy payment does exist, the offer is a comparison between money now and salary over time, and the calculator paired with this guide does it. The example below uses its defaults: a salary of $85,000, nine completed years, the three months' pay the LINZ and PSA formula gives under ten years, four weeks' notice paid in lieu, and Inland Revenue's extra pay method for the tax, which for a redundancy payment uses the rate column without the ACC earners' levy.
The number that decides most cases is the gap: the weeks you expect to be without work if you take the payment. Fourteen weeks of take-home sounds like a lot until the search takes twenty. The calculator lets you set the gap, the salary of the next job, the redeployed salary and any months of salary protection, and shows which path is ahead over the period you choose. Run it with the gap at twice what you hope for, because that is the case you are insuring against.
It cannot tell you whether an offer is comparable under section 88, and it cannot tell you whether your agreement's formula applies to you. Those are legal questions, and in a public service round they are the questions that decide whether there is a payment to compare at all.
Related guides and tools
- Redeployment vs Redundancy Calculator, the package after tax against the redeployed salary over the period you choose
- Public Sector Redundancy, the collective agreement clause by clause, including notice and the formula
- Restructuring Consultation, the step before any offer, and what the employer must provide
- Negotiating Your Redundancy, what can move once the offer is on the table
Test Your Knowledge
Ten questions on the three terms, the reconfirmation criteria, section 88 of the Public Service Act, and the sums before you answer an offer.
Sources: Public Service Act 2020 sections 87 and 88, read on legislation.govt.nz on 3 September 2026; Toitu Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand and PSA Collective Employment Agreement 2023 to 2025, clauses 10.4 to 10.6 and 10.16, released under the Official Information Act; Employment Relations Act 2000 Part 6A; Inland Revenue, calculate PAYE for a lump sum payment, read 3 September 2026.