550 contact tracers wake up to no work
A tracer who wanted to remain anonymous was one of those who received this message at 8.15am. It read:
"Ch ch ch changes ....Or...so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye....(just for you Thomas!). Ata marie General
I'd love to be starting the day with...' we have a busy day ahead'. Not today…as you will all be aware, following Government's announcement yesterday, with NZ moving to Omicron Phase 3, our wee world of DC calling has come to an end. We can't thank you enough for your amazing work."
The woman was due to start work at 9am.
“I hadn’t got confirmation yet of a shift. So, I checked by phone kind of to a Facebook post saying your job's gone.”
The shift to Phase Three means people testing positive no longer receive a phone call; instead, they are notified by text message.
They're then expected to notify their contacts themselves.
The post was to an internal group at CBG Health Research, the Ministry of Health’s primary case investigation firm.
A MOH spokesperson said no one has been given a notice of termination.
“The message refers to the long anticipated and foreshadowed move to Phase Three and with it a shift in focus to case management."
The woman worked as a disease contact caller for a year, and the job was her main source of income.
She says the news came out of the blue.
“I spoke to my manager last week who said not to worry, that there’s plenty of work for us."
“Not that long ago we were being asked to recruit more people.”
She understands the need for change, saying "we weren't even keeping up with the amount of calls we had to do versus the amount of people we had".
But what caught her off-guard, was the title of the message.
"I just thought I worked here for a year and to wake up and see that’s how they’re going to title a message basically telling you you’ve lost your job is incredibly unprofessional."
The woman said there was mention of 50 jobs available in case investigation, but that this would still leave 500 people jobless.
“I think it [contact tracing] did have to go but not instantly, overnight, you don’t have a job."
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www.1news.co.nz...
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A Neighbourly Riddle! Don’t Overthink It… Or Do?😜
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post if you know the answer and the big reveal will be posted in the comments at 2pm on the day!
If you multiply this number by any other number, the answer will always be the same. What number is this?
Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
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9.5% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
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43.5% I want to be able to choose.
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47.1% Against. I want to deal with people.
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
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