Chch Hospital cleaning contract changes hands

Press, 21 November 1986, Page 8

Chch Hospital cleaning contract changes hands

Christchurch Hospital’s $1 million cleaning contract has changed hands for the first time in 43 years. The Australian-based Berkeley Cleaning Company N.Z., Ltd, was told of its successful tender — about $1 million — for the contract yesterday. The 30-year-old company will take up the reins held for the last 43 years by the initially Christchurch-based company, Crothail Hospital Service, Ltd. The two companies were the only competitors for the contract which is renegotiated every three years. Berkeley made an unsuccessful bid for the contract three years ago.

A change in management, however, should not affect the 70-plus cleaning staff, many of whom are part-time workers. Under the conditions of the contract and the union award all union staff must be taken on by the new contractor under the same terms and conditions as before. For the Crothail com-

pany, however, the lost contract marks the end of an era.

It was at Christchurch Hospital that the company's founder, Mr lan Crothail, gained his first contract and began business 43 years ago, said the company’s southern regional general manager, Mr Thomas Thomson. Since then the company has expanded to take over most of the cleaning contracts for the Canterbury Hospital Board, as well as a number of commercial properties. It is now part of a multi-national group, with sister companies in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Mr Thomson said that the company’s long association with the Hos-

pital Board would continue, as the company still • held cleaning contracts at four board hospitals — Princess Margaret Hospital, Christchurch Women’s Hospital, Coronation Hospital, and Jubilee Hospital. The company had been fortunate having a loyal

and competent staff at Christchurch Hospital for many years, said Mr Thomson.

“We will be very sad to be losing them,” he said.

While it was a condition of the contract that all existing staff would be employed by the new contractor, the change of employer would upset many, he said. The company would try to minimise any related problems. Berkeley Cleaning Company, another multinational company, also had its first involvement in Christchurch through the Hospital Board.

It moved into New Zealand seven years ago, but first gained a foothold in Christchurch in 1983 when it won the cleaning contract for Burwood Hospital, from Crothail. The company’s South Island manager, Mr Terry Corby, said that the company also took over the cleaning contracts for the board’s administration building and community health services about a year ago.

Berkeley also cleaned a

number of commercial properties in Christchurch.

The company started 30 years ago in Sydney when two self-employed brothers, Carl and Ken Berkeley, won their first major contract to clean Sydney University. It now has branches in Singapore, London, the Middle East and Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. Business was booming, said Mr Corby, the company growing five-fold in the last two years. Mr Corby said he did not expect any problems with the take-over.

Cleaning hospitals was big business and much more involved than many people would realise, he said. The average ward alone was subject to a wide range of cleaning tasks every day. Cleaning tasks were organised so that they did not disrupt the work of the hospital, usually done during the daytime in hospital wards but overnight in departments and administration offices.