Up to 50 staff at Icon Water will be made redundant as the organisation cuts back staff by stealth, according to one union.
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Some workers were set to celebrate Christmas and lose their jobs in January.
The company which owns and manages water and sewerage assets in the ACT has confirmed it was again restructuring parts of its business on the back of other job cuts in recent months.
Professionals Australia ACT spokesman David Smith said his union, which represents engineers and technical staff, had not been given access to the consultant's report justifying the restructure.
Icon had been through two re-brandings and four restructures in recent years. The latest re-branding cost $570,000.
"Everyone is getting sick of it, unless you're a consultant," Mr Smith said.
"We've asked they not make any more redundancies before Christmas against anyone's wishes."
He said the union did not know how the cutbacks would affect safety and that Icon had lost hundreds of years of engineering experience during the past three years.
Mr Smith said according to union calculations up to 30 positions would be culled from the business services and asset management areas.
A couple of months ago an estimated 15 positions were culled from the projects group.
If these calculations were correct it would mean Icon would lose 50 people, or 12 per cent of its workforce, in the space of a year.
An Icon spokesperson said consultation on changes to the business services group finished on October 7 with staff reductions mostly in the areas of communications and organisational development.
"Over the next eight weeks, 13 impacted employees [from this unit] will either be successful in gaining a new role, be redeployed into other areas of the business or be made redundant," the spokesperson said.
Consultation on proposed changes to the asset management group started on October 20 and no final decisions about jobs had been made.
"If redundancies occur as a result of this restructure, they will not take effect until January 2016 unless staff elect to waive the final four-week consideration period," the spokesperson said.
"Icon Water is committed to meeting all of its obligations in regard to organisational restructuring, as set out in the Icon Water Ltd and Combined Unions Enterprise Agreement 2014.
"This includes a two to four-week consultation period on the proposed changes, a four-week consultation period on any resulting redundancies, and a four-week consideration period on voluntary redundancy for affected staff members.
"The safety and continued wellbeing of employees is of primary importance to Icon Water."
Support offered to staff involved in the restructure included confidential use of a 24-hour employee assistance program, resilience training sessions, assistance with financial advice and outplacement services.
"As an organisation, Icon Water must continue to be flexible, responsive and agile in order to deal with external pressures including economic, environmental, political or regulatory," the spokesperson said.
"It is vitally important the organisation evolves to continue its focus on providing quality water and wastewater services at a sustainable price for our customers.
"Extensive consultation has been undertaken with employees and the relevant unions in regard to all restructures."
When asked whether Icon had informed its owner, the ACT government, about the job cuts, the spokesperson said organisational restructuring was the responsibility of Icon management.
