Focus on maintenance, technical staff cuts

Saturday, January 1, 2005 5:00

Canterbury District Health Board maintenance and technical staff have been told to expect a proposal for changes including job cuts by February 18.

Staff were told in November that up to 26 maintenance and technical jobs would be disappearing in a centralisation proposal.

National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) organiser Janice Gemmell said the board had told staff and unions by letter this week that a co-ordinated DHB-wide structure was likely to be the appropriate structure and feedback had indicated that sustainable improvements and efficiencies can be made.

Gemmell said staff had taken this to mean the cuts proposal would be going ahead but they would not learn their fate until February.

"This is not the Christmas present that the roughly 100 staff who work for the CDHB hoped for," she said.