JewishCare defends deficit, redundancies
'Did management not know of the deficit, which would indicate a major institutional failure; or if the deficit was known, why did it take so long to declare?'
JewishCare is standing firm in the face of rising criticism after it announced a $2.48 million loss and made a number of client-facing staff redundant.
CEO Gary Groves said earlier this month that compliance costs, rising salaries and other factors across the care sector had significantly increased operating expenses, necessitating the “difficult decisions”.
But a number of people have expressed to The AJN dissatisfaction with Groves’ explanations, with a group of “current and past staff members” anonymously writing an extensive rebuttal.
“Did management not know of the deficit, which would indicate a major institutional failure; or if the deficit was known, why did it take so long to declare?” they asked.
“Certainly, at the ground floor level, there were longstanding concerns about the costs of the prolonged extensive restructure planning, and the extensive employment of consultants and external supervisors.
“The published treasurer’s report fails to provide any of the necessary details to allow a transparent examination of these and other key subcategories of expenditure.
“The questions raised warrant frank answers; what has been left behind is a state of collective distress and a sense of shock and injustice.”
Another community member told The AJN there had “been a lot of hirings and firings”.
“There’s no Yiddishkeit, there’s nothing Jewish about it [any more],” the person observed.
Community member Peter Waxman asked, “Despite some reference to increased operational costs, more stringent regulatory environment etc, how does this account for a sudden $2.48 million shortfall? As a former university economics lecturer, I am afraid I sense either some human or system failure.”
Responding to Groves’ earlier statement that “no frontline staff are affected by these redundancies”, Waxman asked, “You have retrenched individuals who have developed long-standing relationships with the most vulnerable in the community. If they are not frontline staff, then who is?”
In response, a statement this week “on behalf of JewishCare and the board” stated, “The questions posed have been provided without the facts, without context, and are largely unrelated to the challenges that JewishCare faces and the transformation program we have designed to deal with them.
“The cost of providing care in Australia has increased significantly and JewishCare must realign to become more sustainable so it can continue to service the community into the future.
“These are industry-wide issues and we are not alone in having to deal with them.
“As we have said, we regret that redundancies were necessary as we transition to a more sustainable model. We do not take these decisions lightly. We understand affected employees may feel aggrieved and have offered support to affected staff including redeployment.”
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