2400 Education Dept jobs

to go under O’Farrell cuts

PLANS to cut 2400 jobs from schools and TAFE colleges across the state and 3600 workers in hospitals will make life harder for frontline staff, says the New South Wales Opposition.

Labor leader John Robertson says NSW Treasury documents show 3600 jobs will be cut from NSW hospitals and a further 2400 are set to be axed from schools and TAFE colleges over the next four years.

The cuts are part of the government’s announced 1.2 per cent annual labour expense cap in last month’s budget, which could result in the loss of 10,000 public sector jobs over the next four years.

This is on top of 5000 redundancies announced in September.

The government yesterday (Tuesday) conceded the numbers were not capped and there were no guarantees that further jobs would not be lost, Sydney media report.

The news has prompted calls from the Opposition today (Wednesday) for Premier Barry

“It’s time for the Premier to come clean and tell the public exactly which workers will be sacked and which public services will axed,” Mr Robertson says in a statement.

He says the cuts will have patients waiting longer at hospitals and will make it harder for teachers, with support staff including teachers’ aides and school counsellors set to lose their jobs.

“Frontline workers are not quarantined from the cuts and that means everyone from paramedics and physiotherapists in our hospitals, to teachers’ aides, TAFE teachers and school counsellors, will be in the firing line,” says Mr Robertson.

Treasury documents reveal that NSW Health will be required to cut $88.8 million a year from employee expenses, he says, while the Education Department is reportedly set to lose $42.1 million worth of permanent employees in 2012-13, with another $17.9 million cut from the temporary staffing budget.