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A NUMBER of nursing managers across the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) face being told to accept a pay cut or forced to relocate if they want to keep their jobs.
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Those who refuse to accept the radical changes face being left with volunteering for redundancy as their last option.
Others will be forced to reapply for their own jobs under a radical restructure of nursing management staff across the Riverina currently being proposed by MLHD.
The change will see a small net number of job losses across affected sites and a number of managerial roles have been replaced with part-time clinical positions.
No decision has been made on whether the replacement clinical positions would be offered at an equivalent pay grade.
Three extra positions have been created in the new structure though it is unclear where those roles are set to be based.
MLHD revealed the proposal to staff on Monday and will consult with employees until the end of the month.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association lead organiser Linda Griffiths has claimed some employees will “lose their livelihoods” if the proposal goes ahead.
“Our members are just shocked and devastated at the proposal – they see nothing in it that will enhance them being able to deliver the safe patient care their communities deserve,” she said.
MLHD operations director Brett Thompson said nobody would be forced to move sites or accept a lower paying job and redundancies would only be explored as a last resort.
“Our intention is not to offer redundancies and lose the staff, we want to work with those people to keep them here,” he said.
“At the end of the process, if we have people we can’t find positions for and they’re not willing to move, we’d need to find options for them and of the last resorts would be voluntary redundancies.”
The new structure – which does not affect Wagga-based services and is focused on smaller centres around the region, stretching from Boorowa to Barham – sees a number of roles move to other sites or split between multiple centres.
For example, Hay’s deputy nurse manager under the new structure will now be required to service Hillston and Lake Cargelligo as well. Lake Cargelligo’s deputy nurse manager will go, to be replaced by the shared role.