The New Zealand Customs Service plans to cut an unknown number of jobs amid the Government's intention to trim the public service and reduce costs.
Customs senior leadership held a staff meeting on Thursday to discuss options for meeting cost pressures and savings, a spokesperson said.
Job cuts had been proposed across the public sector since last year's election after the victorious Coalition parties - National, ACT and NZ First - signalled their intentions to save money amid a shaky economy.
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, Statistics NZ, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Ministry for the Environment have all signalled layoffs in recent months.
Customs, which employs about 1200 people across New Zealand, would likely have voluntary or early retirement options take effect from May, the spokesperson told Newshub on Friday.
The service had started the process of "seeking expressions of interest for voluntary redundancy or early retirement and no decisions or estimates on how many roles may be impacted or disestablished have yet been made", the spokesperson said.
Speaking to AM last week, Finance and Public Service Minister Nicola Willis was tight-lipped on how many Government department job cuts there could be.
Coalition leaders National, of which Willis is the deputy leader, has committed to delivering tax cuts and campaigned on slashing spending across public agencies.
Government departments have been told to meet cost savings targets of either 6.5 or 7.5 percent.
