Worried workers wait

Kitchen worker Karen Phillips attends a protest march on Tuesday against the outsourcing proposal...
Kitchen worker Karen Phillips attends a protest march on Tuesday against the outsourcing proposal. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Val Summers.
Val Summers.

For half of the four years she has worked as a kitchen assistant and diet aide at Dunedin Hospital, Karen Phillips has lived with the uncertainty of not knowing whether she will hold on to the job.

Miss Phillips (32) is one of about 60 kitchen workers at the Dunedin site whose lives have virtually been on hold during delay-ridden efforts to outsource Southern District Health Board kitchens to a multinational company.

In April 2013 when a plan for an outsourced national food service was revealed in a leaked document, staff never thought they would still be waiting two years on. Recreation activities such as holidays are on hold during the period of uncertainty.

''It's horrible day to day.

''The stress of the staff and the morale of the staff is very low.''

Miss Phillips believes the health board vote, on May 7, will be close.

''We believe that there's one more board member to come across on to our side to keep us in-house.

''If we can get one more board vote, we are more than likely to stay in-house.

''We're just all tired. We're going to fight to the bitter end.''

Miss Phillips, who liaises directly with patients, says the overwhelming majority are full of praise for the meals.

She receives probably one negative comment from the 50 or 60 people she deals with each day.

Staff are repeatedly asked by patients about the meal plan, but for the two years, they have not quite known what to say.

''It's massive. There's so many unanswered questions, even now.''

If meals are outsourced, workers will not be paid redundancy and will not know for several months whether they have a job.

Workers spoke to the Otago Daily Times outside the Dunedin Town Hall on Tuesday night before marching to a health board meeting in the municipal chambers.

At first reluctant, soon many were speaking, some preferring not to give their name.

Cook Val Summers says the lack of information for staff over the two years has been ''disgusting''.

Staff felt they have been treated dismissively by the board, and took particular exception to recent reported comments by chairman Joe Butterfield about the situation.

A long-serving staff member, who preferred not to be named, said Dunedin was the ''leading light'' of hospital kitchens, its menu used as a model.

The worker said it left them thinking: ''What was all that hard work for?''

Sous chef Micheal Stewart, of Dunedin, has worked in the kitchen for 35 years.

Mr Stewart paid tribute to the work of the late regional executive chef Sarah Marshall, who led significant improvement of the hospital's menu and kitchen facilities.

Mr Stewart was one of a team with Ms Marshall and others who ''went down and took Invercargill back'' as an in-house service at Southland Hospital after a period of being run privately.

''For the board to treat us like that. We are dedicated loyal people. To be just fobbed off. Every time we go to a meeting, they've got no answers,'' Mr Stewart said.

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