AT LEAST 14 jobs are under threat in the Tamworth district, if the privatisation of Housing NSW goes ahead, the Public Service Association (PSA) said.
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Amid a transition of the state government housing body to non-government organisations, the workers’ union said a further five jobs are believed to be under threat in Armidale, eight in Moree and two in Narrabri.
PSA North West organiser Steve Mears said the association is preparing to lobby state MPs to ensure their jobs are retained, with uncertainty surrounding how many jobs could cross over to the private sector.
“Virtually our whole government social housing has been sent out to the private sector for management,” he said.
“It’s fairly imminent, there are some people who are obviously going to be able to reapply, but we’re not fairly certain on the name of them and they’re not overly confident.”
Mr Mears said the association would now “draw up letters” to local members in the North West seeking support.
“We’ll be writing to them to see if we can get a show of support as well,” he said.
Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson said the transition of Housing NSW to non-government bodies was an ongoing process and was out for tender.
“It will continue to be transitioned across the state and part of this process is tenders for the company who will take over, and that is yet to be decided.
“When the tenders are announced, we will know the next steps,” he said.
Mr Anderson said he’d been in talks with housing NSW executives, with more than 1500 people in about 750 social housing properties in his electorate; many of those homes, including Gunnedah, had already transitioned.
“I’m very keen to ensure our local workers have options available to them,” he said.
“Whoever wins the tender will need people who have experience in housing, so there will be job opportunities and I will be pushing that existing workers get that opportunity if they want it.”
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said he understood no jobs would be lost through the transition.
“There will be no job losses,” he said.
“Whoever takes on the management will take up all those jobs plus employ extra people.
“They (the private sector) have a much higher staff to tenant ratio than the Department of Housing does.
“For example all properties at Homes North have more staff employed than the department ever did and that’s why tenants love them, they get a quicker response to their properties and they look after them better.
“It’s far from losing jobs, but I can’t speak for the individual people who may take the opportunity of redundancy.”
