Nearly half of the staff involved in the recovery of the bodies of the 29 men killed in the Pike River mine disaster have been laid off.



Nine staff, including Marty Palmer, whose son, Brendan Palmer, 27, was killed in the November 2010 blast, have been given a month's notice by the mine's receivers.



A spokesman for some of the Pike River families, Bernie Monk, said experts were probably going to be brought in from Australia, so there was not much more the staff based on the West Coast could do.



''It's sad to see people lose their jobs. However, they had been spoken to about it a while ago, so it's not been a major surprise.''



He suspected more of the remaining 11 staff, including another victim's parent, would be laid off as the receivers did not have much money.



The families just wanted to see the removal of the bodies, he said.



''They are standing in line like us; waiting for their men to come out.''



The continued cost of the recovery was believed to have been a factor in the redundancies, but the mine's receivers could not be reached for comment.



In the weeks after the disaster, 114 mine employees were made redundant, leaving 43 people employed by the mine.



Further redundancies followed last year, including former chief executive Peter Whittall.