Union secretary Alex Scott said "there has definitely been job losses in Cairns hospital, Cairns health district service, and based on the budget figures there's also likely to be job losses in the Townsville health service as well".

"What we're seeing is while there's been commitments from the government for permanent staff to be protected, there isn't commitments to guarantee temporary staff that they will have jobs," he said.

"What we know is from the 1st of July last year compared to the 1st of July next year there'll be less people employed in those health services than there are currently."

Mr Scott was speaking at a committee hearing into the Industrial Relations Bill 2016 on Wednesday.

The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service board stepped down in September following revelations the service had a projected 2016-17 operating deficit of $80 million – more than 10 per cent of its operating budget.

At the time, Health Minister Cameron Dick did not explicitly rule out job losses as a result of the fallout.

Mr Scott said no permanent staff were laid off, but the failure to renew contracts and changes in classifications would impact on the health service.

"So the question is whether that will be done through vacancies not being filled or whether there will be temporary workers who were working there who aren't working there," Mr Scott said.

"Based on the budget papers there will be less people employed this financial year in the Cairns health service than there were last year.

"My view is that there will be temporary workers who will lose their job during this process.

"We believe that clearly as part of the budget process there will be less frontline workers, who we cover, in the health service over the next period."

Mr Scott said there were 36,000 workers employed on temporary contracts in the state's public service, including Queensland Health employees, with some reporting issues gaining mortgages and the uncertainty of whether their contracts would be renewed.

"While temporary employment doesn't cost the government money or save the government money, it has a huge impact on the individuals involved," he said.

Member for Bundamba Jo-Ann Miller, a committee member, said many Queensland public servants were "relieving up in positions sometimes for many, many years and departments have deliberately not called for those positions to be filled".

She said when public servants were nearing retirement age and on the defined benefits scheme, they would prefer to retire on the higher-level position.

"It could mean a difference of a couple of hundred thousand dollars," Ms Miller said.

"My understanding from the public servants I've been talking to is that the departments have been, over the last few months, putting those people back to their substantive positions and they are also still requiring them to do the work that they were doing in their relieving capacity."

Queensland Nurses Union state secretary Beth Mohle asked the committee to consider introducing the right to take protected industrial action outside a bargaining period.

"There is no entrenched right to strike in Australian law," she said.

"We believe workers should be able to take protected industrial action in pursuit of matters arising from their employment relationship.

"For nurses and midwives, this could include excessive workloads, changes to career and classification structures and rostering practices."