Austin Health has advised that it intends to restructure the Biochemistry department at the Austin Campus. Austin Health has provided an Employee Impact Statement but management has failed to demonstrate that there are any credible grounds for the proposed redundancy of 3.2 EFT scientific positions.

In part management has asserted that Biochemistry has not been reviewed since 1995, a demonstrably false claim. Even if this were the case, there has been no Review in 2011 on which to base redundancies, and no indication from Austin Health as to how it is proposed to manage workloads and rosters with fewer scientists on shift.

A number of meetings have been held and the Union has written to pathology management pointing out that they have failed to provide adequate data. We have notified a dispute over the matter to Fair Work Australia. In the mean time the status quo will apply while the matter is dealt with in FWA.