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  Issue No 26 Official Organ of LaborNet 13 August 1999  

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Letters to the Editor

Privatisation Of Prince Of Wales Hospital Maintenance Department


I have supported Labor {both State and Federal} since I started work as an apprentice and became old enough to vote {1970}. I watched that job I held for twenty-two years become redundant under a Greiner Liberal Government.

Now a job I have held for several years is soon to become redundant, {due to privatisation of our maintenance workshop at the Prince of Wales Hospital Randwick} arranged by a Carr "Labor?" Government.

The "Liberal" tactics used by the Carr Government to make state workers totally humiliated and pushed into "voluntary" redundancies. So that Government assets can be sold-off to pay for {I believe} badly managed Government Departments and an Olympic Games?

What we are being subjected too has also been experienced by State Rail, DOCS, RTA and the Power Industry.

All by a Labor government!

The Prince of Wales Hospital owns a Car Parking Station that holds in excess of two thousand cars this was as I understand it, leased to a private company for twenty years for a cash pay-out {in my opinion a virtual goldmine, lost}.

Now they {the Prince of Wales} are going through the processes of leasing the Plant Rooms {for twenty years} and privatising the Maintenance Workshop for the same period. Some staff may be required by the contractor the others, can take a voluntary redundancy, although we are not sure as everything is hush, hush, and it will be another two weeks before we find out anything. Not surprising as they told us we would know our futures by last May!

What about when all the Public Assets have been sold off!

What then?

How about Mr Carr looking into the managerial expertise of his so-called managers in Government Departments, especially in the Health Department.

Ask about:

- Their qualifications {lack of technical knowledge and management nous}

- Their expensive mistakes derived from their decisions {wrong equipment purchased and then discarded, or the necessity to purchase additional equipment to augment the short falling's of previously purchased equipment, to name a few}

- Their understanding of the workplace they manage

- Their understanding of being frugal without cutting services {waste}

- Purchase of equipment out of their depth, ie. Without understanding the availability of spare parts or the cost or actual down time required, not to mention training required to service said equipment. {training?}

- The inefficient use and control of contractors

- The use of in-house staff to fix up contractors work, who have already been paid and gone. {Who will fix it up when we are gone, another contractor!}

- Bob Carr is always telling US to use Public Transport, BUT every manager's job comes with a {leased} car as part of their package as it does right across the board of State Government Departments.

It appears to me that all cost savings start at the lower end of the workers scale, because it is easy, instead of tackling the problem where it really lies and always has!

It is my opinion that these Managers believe that by letting contracts they will be devoid of any responsibilities and can sit back and peruse their mountaining superannuation.

It is easy to make maintenance workers, cleaning staff etc. redundant, the insignificant savings are only temporary as the real cause of the problems are still in place and will remain in place whether the actual work is done by private contract or not.

Name Withheld By request


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 26 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Republic: Looking Forward
With the Republic referendum threatening to run off the rails, supporters of an Australian Head of State need to reclaim the debate from the lawyers.
*
*  Interview: Chatting With Kate
Workers Online�s first ever Net night was held in the Yap chatroom this week. Labor IT spokeswoman Kate Lundy stepped up to the plate to talk Politics in a Wired World.
*
*  Unions: Simply the Best!
A major international study has ranked Australian seafarers the world's best.
*
*  Technology: Unions Log In to Online Yap
A Conference on Unions and Information Technology for the Australasian Region will be held in Melbourne: November 15-17.
*
*  History: Edmund Who?
John Passant lifts the veil on Our first Prime Minister, a bloke called Barton.
*
*  International: Turkish Miners' Leader Murdered
Semsi Denizer, President of the Turkish miners' union Genel Maden-Is, was shot dead outside his home last Friday evening.
*
*  Labour Review: What's New at the Organising Centre
Read the latest issue of Labour Review, Labor Council's resource for students and activists.
*
*  Review: Working Class Boys
silverchair might have a new sound, but they�re part of a rich Australian music tradition.
*

News
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»  Chook War Widens - Woman Who Walked Wants Job Back
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»  Rural Council Workers Push to Quit ALP
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»  Push for Action on Millennium Leave Bug
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»  Pay Equity Inquiry Sidelined
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»  NRMA Candidates Address Union Concerns
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»  Ceiling Dust a Deadly Cocktail
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»  Sex Discrimination Head Warns Against Complacency
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»  DIR Launches Indigenous Employment Unit
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»  "Big Drum Up" For East Timor
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»  Eric Lee Public Forum
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»  STOP PRESS: Fire Bans Lifted But Dispute Not Over
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Columns
»  Guest Report
*
»  Sport
*
»  Trades Hall
*
»  Piers Watch
*

Letters to the editor
»  Piers Fans Fires
*
»  Some Views Of Einstein
*
»  Group Homes Sell-Off Fears
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»  Privatisation Of Prince Of Wales Hospital Maintenance Department
*
»  Call for Wage Freeze Action
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