Hospital workers fight for jobs

By Seetal Dodd MELBOURNE — Hospital services in the northern region, covering the Austin, Repatriation, Fairfield, PANCH, and Bundoora hospitals, are entering their third week of industrial action. Strong bans have been in place on all hospital campuses over management's intentions to bring in forced redundancies when it closes Fairfield in the middle of this year. Redundancy packages include pay-outs which are less than have been given in voluntary departure packages and a clause prohibiting redundant workers from working in the public sector for three years. Workers over 55 years old get only half the pay-out. After three weeks of bans, management has conceded nothing. Many "volunteers" or scabs were employed to work at Fairfield. On March 7, management went on the offensive. Starting at 7am, workers received personally addressed and delivered forms instructing them to "resume within five minutes the full range of duties appropriate to your position". The form threatened: "You will be required to leave the premises immediately and you will forfeit any pay until you demonstrate your preparedness to comply with the foregoing instructions". The forms also told workers at the Austin Hospital to report to the supervisor, Ray Colley, "ready and willing to perform your full range of duties". Colley also signed the form on behalf of management. Prior to becoming a hatchet man for the bosses, he was a long-time union bureaucrat and once secretary of the Hospital Employees Federation, an ALP left union. A stop-work meeting held in response to management's offensive resolved to continue the bans. Workers will work as directed when management is around, and continue their bans and a go-slow when management is not. This cat-and-mouse action may go on for some time, although if management responds with stand-downs or sackings, the strike action will escalate.