Ryan Park, Shadow Minister for Health and Housing and Homelessness, met with the Health Services Union in Goulburn on Monday and talked about the Southern NSW Health District's staff restructure.
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After his meeting with the Health Services Union, Mr Park told the Goulburn Post that people are facing uncertainty regarding their employment status at the moment.
"There are many people who are in health service and have been on the frontline of Covid. They have done an enormous amount to protect their local community. Now, they are uncertain about whether or not they will be employed," he said.
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"We are asking the government to be upfront and transparent, and should tell us the purpose of this restructure, benefits from it, what will happen to those who have expressed a great deal of concern about the uncertainty, and confusion about the process that should have been completed a while ago."
Mr Park was accompanied by Tara Moriarty, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, on his visit to Goulburn.
She will be writing a letter to the government addressing these concerns and questioning the purpose of the restructure, it's outcome, how services are going to improve in the community as a result of this restructure and what is the communication to workers around when this is going to happen.
Meanwhile, Health Services Union (HSU) organiser Mark Jay, who was a part of the meeting, said about 60 positions would be eliminated and 220 posts were affected by alterations to grading, reporting lines or work changes.
"There is a lot of concern in the community, particularly after voluntary redundancies. One of the big concerns is that it is affecting workloads of the existing staff members," he said.
"There is a lack of communication around the end game, on whether patient care is going to be compromised, and staff welfare is going to be supported by current management in place. Members are confused as to who they should be reporting to as the reporting lines have been blurred due to redundancies."
The HSU mounted a dispute in the Industrial Relations Commission in September 2020. In October, the Commission ordered both parties to hold union specific consultative discussions, as the HSU argued the Health District had originally promised.
The next meeting with IRC is scheduled in March where they can share any concerns regarding the consultation process.
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