By REBECCA BILLS
A BARWON Water plan to outsource services would result in forced redundancies, according to the Australian Services Union.
ASU Acting Assistant Secretary Michelle Jackson said Barwon Water’s decision to contract out work currently done in-house would affect infrastructure and services to Geelong households and lead to job cuts.
Ms Jackson said the decision showed a “complete lack of care for current employees” with most of the services currently undertaken by Barwon Water affected by any changes.
“The work they are attempting to contract out has successfully been done in-house for a long period by its own staff and the level of service will now be affected through this tender process,” she said.
“Management announced they’ve selected four companies to submit an expression of interest to undertake this work, but that there may be a possibility it may remain internal, which we think is a very remote chance of happening.”
The Independent reported in June that Barwon Water was considering outsourcing some operations to save costs.
Board chair Michael King told the Independent the organisation faced a “challenging time.”
He said Barwon Water had saved $10 million in operational costs since starting an “efficiency and effectiveness review” by accounting and advisory firm BDO.
The organisation has also halved its capital expenditure for the next five years to about $330 million and an Essential Services Commission review handed Barwon Water price decrease of 7.6 per cent between 2013 and 2018.
Barwon Water managing director Joe Adamski said the organisation had not made any decisions regarding contracting out its civil, electrical and mechanical maintenance, land management and stores services.
“The bids will be assessed on broad criteria including customer service, delivery model, ease of implementation, operating competency, people management and price,” he said.
“The cost, performance and risks associated with the preferred tenderer will then be compared with Barwon Water’s current delivery of these services before a decision is made.”
Mr Adamski said affected employees and unions had been updated throughout the process.
“Whatever the outcome, there will be no impact on services – to the contrary, the ability to meet performance levels and targets and deliver customer services are among the key assessment criteria,” he said.
