At issue is a three-person health services unit that provides pre-hiring checkups for city employees and is also the first stop for workers injured on the job.
Cutting the staff and outsourcing the duties to Duke Medical Center could save taxpayers about $250,000 a year. But since the city's Finance Committee first raised the issue, a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign has been launched on behalf of the targeted employees.
At a recent meeting, City Council members sharply questioned the move, and City Manager Tom Bonfield put off further discussion until Oct. 22. We agree that there's no reason to rush into a decision. Let's make sure all the questions are answered.
But on the other hand, taxpayers shouldn't be expected to maintain an unnecessary function solely because we have sympathy for those who may lose jobs. Layoffs are painful, but at times they are unavoidable.
As reported by The Herald-Sun's Ray Gronberg, some of the objections to closing the department came from Bill Taylor, a consultant and former city official. Taylor said city nurses were in a much better position to judge if employees were faking injuries in order to avoid work.
His argument made us wonder if malingering is such a widespread problem among city employees that we need a staff of three people to guard against it. That doesn't speak very well for the employees.
Actually, we think that exaggerating injuries to get out of work is a rare occurrence in city government, and that when it happens, an employee's supervisor, working in conjunction with outside doctors, could deal with the problem just as well as an in-house staff.
Also, how well qualified is a nurse to judge the extent of an employee's injuries? Certainly the person would need to see a doctor anyway to confirm the nurse's initial diagnosis. We would hate to see an injured employee ordered back to work by a nurse acting without a doctor's analysis. That would surely be grounds for a lawsuit.
These are other questions to ask.
