The Health Services Union of WA says its members are reeling after being told 500 jobs will go from the health sector.
The union said an email has already been sent to staff asking them to register interest in a separation package by tomorrow.
State secretary Dan Hill said it was surprising that the cuts were coming at a time when the sector was expanding.
“That’s 500 jobs going from our public hospital system without any consultation with the union,” he said.
“Complete absence of detail at this stage, but it’s a real concern to the union and our members particularly given the amount of effort that members are putting into reconfiguration of health services and the like.”
Mr Hill said the job cuts had been flagged but only generally, and specific numbers were not known until now.
“It’s a very short turnaround time for them to even register an interest and make an informed decision,” he said.
“If they haven’t registered by Friday and the opportunity for voluntary severance isn’t there in the future then they’re going to be disadvantaged.
“So we’d be asking Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, where registration offers have been made to pull back from that and let’s have some consultation.
“It’s just another example of the Health Department’s poor management of its budget and almost complete absence of any informed workforce planning.”
‘Limited scope’ to move into private sector
Mr Hall said there was limited scope for health professional staff to move into the private sector.
“Midland Health Campus opens towards the end of next year but that’s some way down the track and to move into private sector, they would lose their status as public sector employees,” he said.
He said a lot of his members had made long-term career decisions to provide health and hospital services to those most in need in the community.
Mr Hill also said there had been many assurances there would be no forced redundancies, and the minister had often said the sector was expanding, meaning there was a need for more staff, not less.
WA Health said last month Premier Colin Barnett announced 1,500 redundancy packages would be made available across the public sector.
It said it had only recently been advised that 500 voluntary separation packages would be available for its staff through this initiative.
The department said it was making arrangements for communicating the initiative to its employees and stakeholders, including the unions, in the coming days.