New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) plans to shed 485 jobs, more than half its employees, by January as its work in Canterbury enters the final phase.

Its proposed restructure will affect 868 employees on fixed-term agreements to December or on contracts of service.

There will be 71 fewer roles in Hamilton, 172 losses in Wellington and 242 fewer staff in Canterbury, with the organisation to comprise just 383 people.

CEO Ian Simpson says the cuts were signalled early in the year and again during staff updates last month.

Employees have until August 23 to give feedback on the proposed structure.

“As our work in Canterbury enters its final phase… we will obviously need to be a smaller organisation,” Mr Simpson said. “We have carefully considered the work we still need to do for our customers in Canterbury and further developed our plan for completing that work.”

Mr Simpson expects the new structure to be finalised late next month.

By the end of this year the EQC aims to have completed 67,900 managed home repairs, and paid 99,000 residential building claims scheduled for cash settlement and 187,000 contents claims. It also wants all green-zone land claims settled, though some reviews requested by customers are likely to carry over to next year.

The commission will spend next year resolving remedial requests on properties where it has managed repairs, addressing claims for drains damaged by earthquakes and a range of administrative and financial tasks.