Pushing for SCC board to resign

the decision to be reversed and for CEO Robyn Boyd and the SCC board to resign had gathered more than 1300 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.

HACSU industrial manager Robbie Moore said SCC was more interested in making money than “concern for residents”.

“It’s time [the CEO and board] stood aside to make way for management who actually care about the welfare of older Australians,” he said.

After the plan was announced last month, Ms Boyd said the new model would lead to superior care being provided to residents and stressed that no staff would be sacked.

“There are options to stay with Southern Cross Care or to take voluntary redundancies if that isn’t suitable and we are working directly with staff on how it impacts them,” Ms Boyd said. “I have been meeting regularly with staff, residents and their families since announcing the plan to move to the new model of care … and overwhelmingly there is broad support for the direction we are headed.”

Lisa Mott, who started the HACSU petition and has a family member living at SCC’s Yaraandoo facility at Somerset in the state’s North-West, said Ms Boyd and the board should be “ashamed” for attempting to bring in the changes, which “show a complete disrespect … to the staff members and the residents”.

“When Southern Cross Care came out and said that they had spoken to residents and families saying that we were okay with [the changes], we hadn’t heard about any of it,” she said.

“For them to say that we’re happy with the proposed changes is a blatant lie.”

Southern Cross Care was contacted for comment.