The company met with affected employees on Tuesday, but has not stipulated to The Irrigator the number of jobs that will go.

MI said the changes were due to a realignment of the structure of its operations division "to better reflect the changing needs of the organisation".

MI general manager of operations Alan Shea said the changes would reposition the operations team to "realise the full benefits of our investments in modernising and automating our infrastructure so that we can continue to deliver water to our customers in the best way possible".

He said some streamlining of existing functions had led to new roles being created with some team members being promoted to take up new challenges.

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"The changes offer opportunities for some of our leaders and contributes to a strong career progression for our employees," Mr Shea said.

Whilst the Leeton office remains open, it is the end of an era for MI's Leeton mechanical workshop, which will close its doors for the last time.

"We have tried for several years to keep the workshop running by catering to external business and servicing staff vehicles," Mr Shea said.

"Unfortunately, having a separate vehicle workshop in two locations is no longer viable."

MI said it would instead re-focus on its core activity of maintaining its heavy plant and support other local mechanical businesses by providing them with any overflow MI vehicles servicing and maintenance.

In the bigger picture the company said the change was a "way of supporting other small businesses in the region who are struggling by transferring our non-core workload to them".

"We understand for those directly impacted this is a difficult and emotional time," Mr Shea said.

"We are committed to supporting them in transition to new roles or their exit in the case of redundancies."

The company said the changes, which will affect a range of different roles, will not mean any reduction in customer service levels.