Massive job cuts to hit South Australia

February 2, 2000
Issue 

By Erica Haines

ADELAIDE — Vehicle manufacturer Mitsubishi has confirmed it will stay in South Australia for at least another 10 years but will impose a major restructuring program which will cost up to 1000 jobs — more than a quarter of its work force in the state.

A day after Mitsubishi's announcement, the minister for transport Diana Laidlaw announced that the government-owned bus service, TransAdelaide, had failed to exclusively retain any of its contracts and that the system will be privatised except for one shared route. This will leave another 1200 workers facing an uncertain future.

The acting state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, John Camillo, told the Adelaide Advertiser, "Even a worst-case estimate of between 500 and 1000 fewer jobs failed to dampen the sheer joy. Compared with what could have been the worst possible result, this is a brilliant result." Camillo claims that there will be enough workers "putting their hands up to voluntary retire" and that there will be no forced redundancies. At a time of high unemployment this is hard to believe.

TransAdelaide will continue to run the state's tram and train services for now, but it is likely to be the next stop for the state Liberal government's privatisation steam train. The seven TransAdelaide contracts, which run for five years with a further five-year option, were won by three private companies: Serco, which has been running the northern bus routes for some time, Torrens Transit and Australian Transit Enterprises.

Laidlaw expects that the majority of the TransAdelaide staff affected will be employed by the new contractors and that "only" around 240 workers will be re-deployed within the state public service or offered "targeted separation packages". However, there is no provision in the contracts giving TransAdelaide staff priority access to these jobs.

Members of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union are understandably furious and the union's executive has not ruled out industrial action.

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