Radio 3CR today (10 October) reported that Austin Hospital members of the CFMEU, AMWU, ETU, plumbers and maintenance crews have been told they'll be out of  job due to maintenance being contracted out to Transfield. 

It was claimed on the program that 'The case was taken to Fair Work Australia (where) unions had redundancy payouts extended, but the Commission would not recommend that workers be kept on by Transfield'. ETU members would be aware that a few years back construction workers at the Austin undertook a major fundraising campaign that netted the hospital thousands of dollars. 

Organiser Greg Arnett supported 3CR's position, saying that workers 'had not been treated with dignity or fairness'. He went on to say that the ETU will continue to fight for the interests of the members and that it was shameful for the Baillieu government to raise the spectre of an attack on construction workers while turning a blind eye to the 'callous behaviour of a hospital under its jurisdiction'.