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Deniliquin Council general manager Des Bilske has denied claims that several council staff have been forced to take pay cuts as part of an internal restructure.

The restructure, which started last month, has already seen three council administration staff members made redundant.

However Mr Bilske said no staff member had been forced to take a pay cut while also denying claims there is union action against council relating to the jobs losses.

The general manager says the review and subsequent restructure are necessary to ensure council is working efficiently and cutting unnecessary costs.

‘‘We need to make sure the organisation is effective and efficient,’’ he said.

‘‘We will continue to review all areas of council, the greater majority of which will be done internally.

‘‘We need to look at the whole organisation, because something needs to be done.

‘‘We have only just started looking at those individual areas, starting with what we call ‘back office’.

‘‘The focus has been on areas with no direct service delivery.’’

Council staff levels and operations will be investigated over a period of two years, according to Mr Bilske.

He said the structural review ‘‘may take as long as that’’ to be completed.

More job losses may result from the review, but Mr Bilske said there were none planned for the ‘‘near future’’.

He also confirmed the Deniliquin Library would be part of the review.

‘‘The library is just one of the areas that will come under review,’’ he said.

‘‘Until we do that review, we cannot pre-empt what will happen.

‘‘But we do need to go into this with an open mind.’’

Mr Bilske said the impact on staff and council finances would continue to be monitored during the course of the review.

He said in some cases, existing staff may be redirected to another department of council rather than being made redundant.

Council also intends to save costs by using internal expertise rather than relying on outside consultants.

The review was discussed in confidential committee at Deniliquin Council’s last ordinary meeting, on January 29.

Three people were told they would lose their jobs the next day, the first taking effect from February 1 and the others from early the following week.

The three redundancies were on top of four positions left vacant in the last 12 months at Deni Council, none of which will be filled by new staff.