Some staff at North Canberra Hospital, formerly known as Calvary, felt pressured to transition to Canberra Health Services when they actually wanted a redundancy, the Health Minister has said.
Redundancies were given to 44 staff members, 70 per cent of whom worked part-time.
The ACT government compulsory acquired the publicly-funded Bruce hospital, which was run by Calvary Care, earlier this month.
Canberra Health Services took over operations on July 3, five weeks after announcing the takeover.
The hospital was renamed North Canberra Hospital.
Before the acquisition date, Calvary staff were told by the ACT government they did not have to transition to Canberra Health Services if they did not want to.
However, they would have to redeployed to another Calvary institution or be offered a redundancy.
The Canberra Times understands staff were given an email by Calvary to express an interest in redundancy.
Canberra Liberals health spokesperson Leanne Castley said she understood there were staff who wanted a redundancy but did not hear back from Calvary.
"My understanding is that people were waiting, waiting, waiting and then the pressure was 'oh my goodness, it's nearly July 3, I can't take a redundancy because I haven't heard anything about it, [I will] just sign up [to CHS]'," Ms Castley said.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said a union expressed concerns staff decided to transition despite wanting a redundancy.
"I've certainly had one union raise with me that they have had a couple of members say to them that they felt that they had to make a decision late in the piece," Ms Stephen-Smith said on Thursday.
She said it was Calvary's responsibility to arrange redundancies.
"Employees at the former Calvary Public Hospital Bruce and Claire Holland House were not ACT government employees. It was not the ACT government's place nor responsibility to have conversations with those staff about redundancy, that was entirely a matter for Calvary Healthcare," the minister said.
Employees offered a role by CHS were not eligible for redundancies, Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"None of those individuals who were offered a job with CHS on the same pay and conditions would in fact, have been eligible for redundancy at all," she said.
While the takeover is not subject to the Fair Work Act, the minister said it was still treated as a transmission of business.
You cannot be offered a redundancy after transitioning to a new employer, according to Fair Work Australia.
"An employee will not be entitled to redundancy pay if they reject the new employer's job offer and its terms and conditions are similar to those of the old job; it recognises the employee's service with the old employer for redundancy pay; there would have been a transfer of employment if the employee had taken the job," the Fair Work website says.
Because the ACT government funded the hospital when it was run by Calvary, it is ultimately responsible for paying out the redundancies.
"Calvary is responsible for paying the redundancies to their staff, but they can claim and have claimed for those costs back," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
In response to questions, a Calvary spokesperson said that "discussions are ongoing between Calvary and CHS around finalising staffing matters associated with the acquisition of the former Calvary Public Hospital Bruce."
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