Joomla! site syndication http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk 2008-08-28T15:04:52+01:00 http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2004-07-07T11:54:06+01:00 http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk/content/view/6/ Indigenous nursing solutionsFixing a dire shortage of nurses in Aboriginal communities will be the top job of a new Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Queensland.Chairwoman Cindy Shannon said Queensland alone had a shortage of 4000 nurses for indigenous communities. Nationally, the shortfall was a further 2500.The centre would mix indigenous health issues in the faculty of health science's offerings of dentistry, health and rehabilitation sciences, human movement studies, pharmacy, medicine, nursing and midwifery and population health.Faculty head Peter Brooks said one of the centre's most important tasks would be to recruit, educate and graduate indigenous students so they could work in their own communities: It's only by getting indigenous people properly trained that we're going to address the longer term health problems. Professor Shannon said all indigenous health disciplines needed more people. But by far, the biggest gap identified was nursing, she said. The workforce shortage becomes extreme in the case of Aboriginal health because of the complexities of remoteness and the burden of disease. To bring the number of workers up to a proper proportion compared to population would take 4000 nurses in Queensland and 2500 more around the rest of the country, she said.The centre hoped to enrol a critical mass of 15 indigenous students next year and to build on that in subsequent years. Professor Brooks said the centre would aim to interest students in health care professions while they were young. We hope that can lead to an increase in indigenous students but we've got to give them the support to keep them at school and to do well in exams. It's a long-term project, not overnight. We hope to see some positives in 10 years. Queensland's is the second indigenous health centre. The first, at the University of Melbourne, is run by Ian Anderson. text/html 2004-05-12T11:54:06+01:00 http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk/content/view/11/ Labor unveils OHS policy A LABOR federal government would seek to accelerate harmonisation of OHS and workers compensation regulation through a more empowered national body and financial incentives to the states and territories to adopt reforms, according to shadow workplace relations minister, Julia GillardSpeaking at a recent seminar in Melbourne, she proposed the concept of ‘cooperative federalism’ as opposed to the Howard Government approach of ‘aspirational nationalism’.Gillard also referred to the “slippery slope of migration to Comcare” as a move by stealth towards a national system, without addressing the fundamentals needed to make such a system work.Speaking at the same Safety Institute of Australia seminar, Jarrod Moran, ACTU workers compensation officer also said that the ACTU is not against a national system in principle, but that Comcare is an inappropriate vehicle for it. The ACTU would want to see a national system built ‘from the ground up’ through a lengthy consultative process, he said.Commenting on the policy, Barry Sherriff, a partner with Freehills in Melbourne, said that Labor’s policy will not require legislation to implement other than as necessary to empower the central body. It will, however, rely on cooperation between all governments, supported by all stakeholders – industry, unions and the professions.“Political and parochial interests will need to be subdued for this to work. Current slow progress through the Australian Safety and Compensation Council suggests that this will not be easily achieved,” he said.Processes employed over the last decade or more towards harmonisation have demonstrated that there is considerable ‘devil in the detail’ and the process of tripartite consultation can be a lengthy and unfruitful one, according to Sherriff. “This policy does not suggest a move toward the more blunt instrument of legislation, although it does not close the door on that.”Labor’s policy confirms there is bipartisan agreement in principle to the need for harmonisation, to reduce confusion and administrative burdens on employers. Sherriff noted that the parties effectively differ only as to the means by which this will be achieved.Importantly, Sherriff said true harmonisation cannot occur without a softening of the more severe elements of some legislation, most notably overturning the reverse onus of proof in New South Wales where companies and officers are guilty unless they prove themselves innocent. text/html 2004-08-09T08:30:34+01:00 http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk http://www.employment-and-recruitment-4u2.co.uk/content/view/2/ Telstra sends 500 jobs offshoreTELSTRA is moving as many as 500 sales support jobs to centres in The Philippines just a fortnight after it took out full-page newspaper advertisements boasting about keeping jobs and investment in Australia.Sol TrujilloUnions say Telstra is replacing its redundant staff with Filipino call centre workersTelstra, which is ramping up efforts to cut its costs as part of Sol Trujillo's $11 billion overhaul of the company, is believed to have sent a number of staff to The Philippines in recent weeks to train offshore workers.The telco is undertaking the project after making hundreds of Australians redundant in its sales support centres in Brisbane, Melbourne and Ballarat.Jobs undertaken in the centres, which may now go offshore, include billing disputes and liaison with Telstra's third-party retailers. This move was conceived of and executed in stealth, said CPSU National Secretary Stephen Jones. Telstra made no mention of moving the jobs to The Philippines when they announced these redundancies, but that was obviously what was intended all along. They knew they were going to do this, they knew they would use Australian managers to train replacement workers in The Philippines, but they maintained everything was business as usual. Telstra refused to answer a series of direct questions about its sales support centres and moving jobs offshore. Telstra engaged one of its existing industry partners, TeleTech, during this temporary, transitional period, to assist in managing data entry volumes until the transformation is complete, spokeswoman Sarah McKinnon said.