WHILE Health Minister Jillian Skinner promotes a recruitment drive for Western NSW Local Health District, Orange hospital warehouse employees are facing redundancy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Skinner visited the Orange Health Service campus yesterday to launch a website called ‘Y not make it You’ aimed at enticing health workers to join the Western NSW Local Health District.
However Peter Iffland, who has worked at the health department’s Orange warehousing facility for 33 years, thought the idea was hypocritical given the likelihood the facility would close and 15 people would lose their jobs.
There has been a call for tenders to take on the service and the Health Services Union believes that will mean supplies will be transferred out of the Orange facility into Sydney.
“It’s gone out to tender but they won’t announce who got it, they keep putting it back and putting it back,” he said.
“They’re waiting until after the election to announce it.”
Health Services Union organiser Zelda Giblett is asking Ms Skinner to give a guarantee to the employees that the facility will not close but she says “to be blunt I believe they haven’t got a hope in hell”.
There are 15 employees at the Orange warehouse dispatching vital medical supplies to communities across western NSW including Dubbo, Mudgee, Narromine, Trangie, Cobar, Nyngan, Coonamble, Gulargambone, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Bourke, Oberon, Blayney, Canowindra and Molong.
Mr Iffland, the union branch secretary, said the health service had offered them retraining but they were concerned they would be competing for jobs against 500 Electrolux workers who were expected to be made redundant in 12 months.
“There just aren’t any more jobs,” he said.
Ms Skinner was unavailable for an interview during her site visit yesterday but a press release issued from her office said the website “promises to attract skilled health professionals to live and work in Western NSW”.
“The beauty of working in a region such as this is the connections you make in a close community. By taking up a job in a local health facility, you gain more than a new career - you become part of the fabric of a warm and welcoming rural community,” Ms Skinner said.
For more information go to: http://ynotmakeityou.com.au.
nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au
*Clarification: The warehouse facility employees are employed by a NSW government organisation called HealthShare, not Western NSW Local Health District.
