Drastic cuts to staff and offices of NSW Industrial Relations will hit workers and small businesses, the Public Service Association said today.

Last week’s NSW budget included a 28 per cent cut to NSW Industrial Relations, the body that provides free advice and support to businesses and employees about their work obligations and rights as well as investigating breaches of workplace laws.

Employee numbers will be cut from 157 to 109, with job losses mostly in the education and inspectorate branches that assist small business. About 40 per cent of NSW IR workplace educators and 29 per cent of investigators will be cut.

Offices to be closed include Penrith and four regional offices at Coffs Harbour, Gosford, Wagga Wagga and Orange. Staff numbers in the Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle offices will be halved. Only Lismore and Dubbo will remain to cover all of country NSW.

PSA Assistant Secretary Steve Turner said the major cuts would be a significant blow to small business across the state, particularly in the regions.

“In 2010, the small business community gave NSWIR a glowing endorsement of the service received. Many businesses and individuals rely heavily on these services.

“In 2009/10 workplace educators visited 14,000 work sites and provided small businesses assistance for free; while workplace investigators recovered more than $3 million in owed money for employees and provided advice to over 35,000 employees.

“NSW IR also plays a vital role in the delivery of the federal industrial relations system through a commercial contract with the Fair Work Ombudsman – our members are concerned that with such a huge loss to their resources, they will not be able to deliver the level of service that this huge contract requires.”

While the government had suggested public sector job losses would be voluntary, people were being pressured to accept redundancies, said Mr Turner.

“These are frontline workers being forced into unemployment. These job cuts will hit regional NSW particularly hard. “