Ministry of Education closes head office in Wellington due to earthquake risks, 1,000 employees to work from home

Jericho Rock Archer / Stuff

The Department of Education will close its Wellington main office due to it being considered an earthquake risk.

The Department of Education’s Wellington head office will be closed and more than 1,000 employees have been told to work from home after it was discovered that it did not meet earthquake criteria.

In a statement, the department’s education minister, Iona Holstead, said the Maturanga house, which was previously reinforced above 90% of the New Building Standard (NBS), now rated by 25% NBS by engineers, was found to have concrete floors.

“Besides the engineers’ report and after health and safety assessment, we have decided to work and our staff at the Maturanga house have been asked to work from home,” she said.

Holsted said other aspects of the building continued to be evaluated well.

Read more: * Staff shortage delays listing of earthquake-prone buildings in Gisborne * Parliamentary staff relocation service from Bowen House as earthquake questions remain * Wellington station deemed ‘earthquake-prone’ during assessment

The department has been working with engineers to better understand the impact of the National Engineering Assessment Guidelines on the Bowen St building.

Wellington is considered a high-risk seismic zone and lies on several active fault lines.

“Our immediate focus is on supporting our employees to transition to remote work and providing them with the resources they need to continue providing services to the education sector,” said Holstead.

“We have until the end of Monday, May 30, allowed employees to transition to remote work. We expect our employees to work from home through September as we plan our long-term working arrangements.”

kevin prop/stuff

Education Minister, Iona Holstead. (file image)

Holsted said staff will be updated and connected throughout the process as he develops his accommodation plan for the future of the national office.

“We know this will be a challenge for some, and we thank all of our employees for their resilience so far and for supporting us through this transition.”

Holsted said it was too early to say how long the repair work would take and whether the department would return to the building in the future.

A year before the ministry moved into the building in 2015, the building was rated 90-100% NBS or “low risk.”

Holstead said that this rating, combined with the building’s relatively good performance during the Kaikoura earthquake, means it was not immediately prioritized for revaluation under the property’s regular and ongoing revaluation schedule.

The ministry received the final engineering report in April and has since shared it with the property owner, requested and considered additional information, requested peer review from the property owner’s engineer, and performed its own health and safety assessment.

Jericho Rock Archer / Stuff

The Bowen St building has more than 1,000 employees who will now have to work from home.

The health and safety assessment took into account factors such as the building’s height and location near a known fault, as well as information provided by the engineers.

While the building’s physical characteristics have not changed, the difference in classification reflected a new set of technical guidelines for seismic assessment released by MBIE in 2017, called Seismic Assessment of Existing Buildings (2017), or the “Red Book,” Holstead said.

The section of the Red Book dealing with concrete buildings was revised in 2018 to include the latest knowledge after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. This section was called the “Yellow Chapter”.

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After the Red Book and Yellow Chapter editions, there was a period of consultation and now, engineers are using these guidelines to make assessments, which has led to recent classification changes for many buildings in central Wellington.

Holsted said there was a limited amount of space available within central Wellington for a small number of people who could not work at home, and they would consider other temporary work sites over the next few months, as well as reimbursing employees for additional costs incurred working from home.

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