Queen Mary Redundancy Lesson For Negotiations

HEALTH REPORTERS
Monday 17 November 2003

Queen Mary Redundancy Lesson For Negotiations

“NUPE’s mental health delegates will consider tomorrow the implications of the Queen Mary liquidation for the CDHB Multi Union Collective Agreement MUCA negotiations on Wednesday 19th November,” said Nadine Marshall, Secretary of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) today.

She was commenting on the fact that staff at Queen Mary seem likely to not only lose their jobs but also about $300,000 of holiday pay and redundancy following the liquidators being called in by Hanmer Clinics last Friday.

“We have called an emergency meeting of delegates to consider our options. Opposition to contracting out has been a central claim in the MUCA negotiations,” said Nadine Marshall. “Queen Mary staff six years ago were in the MUCA. They were contracted out with about $750,000 of redundancy and leave entitlements with them from the Board to the new employer.”

“Now we find the CDHB and the Government washing their hands of any responsibility for the payments of those entitlements and redundancy,” said Nadine Marshall. “This is despite the fact that the Government through the Board has received about $250,000 a year in rent from the Queen Mary site.”

“In the mental health area contracting out is being used to contribute savings to the ‘deficit’ reduction programme under the new population based funding model,” said Nadine Marshall. “What has happened to these staff at Queen Mary demonstrates the ultimate failure of the contracting out model in health.”

ENDS

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