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Published: Tuesday, 27 March 2018 15:27
Aren’t we lucky we don’t live in Gotham City. While many of us have probably seen equally evil candidates having a run for federal, state or particularly, local government spots, we never quite get down to the kind of threats the Joker made standing as Governor*. Still, vote for me or I’ll kill you is a nice change from jobs and growth.
But we’re all civilised people and when depa has an election, just conducted by the State Electoral Commission, things are much more polite and far less threatening.
At midday today nominations closed and the Electoral Commission has just declared elected all candidates who nominated for the ten vacancies. Here is the Electoral Commission's Declaration of Poll. Eight of the current officers of the union (as they are described in the Industrial Relations Act) stood for election, so there were two vacancies to fill.
Elections are held every two years for the position of President, the two positions of Vice President and six members of the Committee of Management and every four years for the position of Secretary. This year was the four yearly cycle so I’m pretty excited to be elected for four more years of pursuing the tyrants, the bullies and those who don’t do the right thing by our members. Thank you all.
President Jo Doheny was elected unopposed. Jo had been appointed by the Committee of Management to fill the casual vacancy created by Andrew Spooner’s resignation back in October and now is elected in her own right. In her nomination, Jo wants to increase our membership and maintain good management practices and said “the union has demonstrated a history of sound advocacy for the members that I will seek to continue in a professional manner and a further the objectives of the union.” Jo is Senior Strategic Contributions Planner at Central Coast Council and long-standing delegate and member of the Consultative Committee.
The current Vice Presidents, Joanne Dunkerley and Jamie loader nominated and were re-elected. Joanne wants to “ensure the continued growth and success of the Association” and Jamie is “extremely proud of the role that depa plays within the industrial framework of Local Government and our reputation, whilst hard-earned, speaks for itself. If we are involved, there is a fight to be fought”. Joanne is an Urban Planner at Newcastle City and Jamie is Unit Manager Environment and Certification at Central Coast.
Four current members of the Committee of Management were re-elected to those positions:
Steven Cook continues his strong connection to regional New South Wales and wants to “continue to help contribute to the strategic operation of the union and achieving positive outcomes for the benefit of the whole membership. Having lived with cancer for the past five years, I also believe that I bring a unique insight to the Committee, as an individual balancing a serious medical condition with full-time work.” Steven is Senior Town Planner at Wagga Wagga Wagga City, our delegate and Chair of the Consultative Committee.
Vince Galletto has a “deep conviction in preserving the rights and benefits of all local government employees and fines great purpose in the role of committee member of depa as a keeps me up to date with all the current industrial issues and challenges that face local government and further provides with the ability to participate and represent my fellow members and all award negotiations.” Vince is the Acting Manager Assessment at City of Ryde and the Chair of the Consultative Committee.
Renah Givney has been involved in a huge restructure and the negotiation of an enterprise agreement and wants to continue “to see firsthand the important role that depa plays in supporting members in the workplace and providing constructive and effective input into the local government industry.” Renah is a Senior Development Assessment Officer at Coffs Harbour City and our delegate.
Brendan Hayes, like Vince with more than 30 years as a depa member, wants “to be part of a leadership group that strives for workplaces that are fair, appropriate and reasonable and reflect this in its policy development and approach and dealings with all industrial matters.” Brendan is Director - Environmental Services at Weddin Shire and a long-serving delegate and member of consultative committees. He is also the President of EDAP.
The two vacant positions as members of the Committee have been filled by (in alphabetical order) Andrew Magee and Shona Porter.
Andrew MacGee
Andrew MacGee says depa “is the voice of environmental health, building and town planning staff in councils throughout New South Wales and performs an invaluable service for those staff as it keeps management honest and operating in accordance with the Award”. He is “keen to assist in ensuring that the Association remains a vital and relevant force into the future for the benefit of all members - current and upcoming”. Andrew is Coordinator Planning Engagement at Campbelltown City, has been our delegate for more than a decade and is Chair of the Consultative Committee.
Shona Porter
Shona says “depa provides value for members in providing professional and capable advice and would like to be elected on the committee to increase my knowledge of employment related issues so that I can better represent my fellow colleagues/depa members.” Shona is a Senior Planner at Canterbury-Bankstown Council (previously at the former Canterbury, when she first became our delegate) and is another member who has had vigorous experience of the merger process.
You can see the full policy statements of all the candidates here.
The new Committee takes office from 1 May 2018 and will be a great combination of experience and enthusiasm to guide and manage depa for the next two years.
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*The unconventional slogan embraced by the Joker was featured in DC comics “Some Enchanted Evening” in July 2005. And, as you always when all you really want is an interesting picture, you end up with some bizarre trivia. It was this issue where it was revealed that Batman’s costume is not only fully insulated, “the costume is likewise equipped with a durable codpiece for protection against embarrassing low-blows”. Keep that in mind for the next pub or school trivia night.
Clearly, this issue of depaNews has something for everyone.
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Published: Monday, 26 February 2018 13:12
When we happened to be the only people in the world who thought to ask a very simple question late last year about why employees with cars at the former Kogarah were receiving a value for those cars in the calculation of “superable” salary for superannuation purposes, and their colleagues in the Georges River merger from the former Hurstville were not, we had no idea what we were getting into.
But what the heck, we were off and running. LGS after an initial period of hostility and trying to blame everyone else is now doing everything to pursue compliance with the Fund’s own requirements for those in the Retirement Scheme and the Defined Benefits Scheme. The IRC is supportive with timetabling and encouragement and LGNSW is pressing its members to provide the information we need to work out just how big this problem is.
When the dispute was listed last in 2017 before Chief Commissioner Kite, LGS undertook to use the annual survey on superable salary to provide more information and obtain as much as they could about the extent of the problem. LGS kept the parties advised of the documents as they were going out and the dispute was relisted for 30 January - the day after the deadline imposed by LGS for the information to be provided.
Only 38% of councils had responded in time. January is not a good time and LGS said this is pretty consistent with their expectations. While this is a disappointing response, it’s not a bad sample and it showed:
- 1506 of 4544 employees were covered by those responses - 33% of all members affected,
- 311 of those 1560 employees had access to a private use car but LGS claimed only 137 “required a value to be reported”.
We can assume that those employees who didn’t require a value to be reported would be senior staff and senior staff contracts where the Council would have reported a TRP.
The IRC has an extremely valuable role to play here because it can direct the attendance of councils not cooperating and the Chief Commissioner provided an encouraging paragraph to be included in LGS follow-up correspondence. The dispute was relisted for a further report on 21 February with the understanding that the words of encouragement would be included in correspondence from LGS the following day or so to the outstanding 62% of councils, there would be telephone follow-up and LGNSW would be actively chasing up those councils as well.
On 21 February when the dispute resumed, all councils had responded - the last slacker Council (which LGS would not name) responding only the day before.
We will meet with LGS on 8 March after they’ve had time to check, analyse and validate the responses and present some exact figures. The information provided, before analysis and validation, shows 4402 employees in the funds affected, 328 employees where the Council claimed a value had been reported but of course it’s those councils that didn’t report a value but where employees have private use of a Council car, which need to be identified as well.
But there is a limit to the value of this information. It will show which councils are providing a value for the private use of the Council car in superable salary but only prospectively for 2018. It will then require a forensic examination of individual records to determine which councils had been doing so in 2017, 2016 and so on all the way back to when this became a clear and unequivocal obligation in 2003.
Clearly this is going to be a long haul.
We have 145 members who’ve given written consent for depa to have access to information held by both the employer/s and LGS which might ordinarily be regarded by either as confidential to the extent necessary to settle this dispute. It may well be we can use those members and their consent to audit those councils. If you are a member affected by this dispute but you have not provided your written consent, it would be a good idea to do so now.
While we will have some information on the current position (and we know of one Council in particular that has confessed to employees that “for the first time”, they will be doing it right) it’s going to take a long, long time to go back and research this sufficiently to work out how to deal with it. At the very worst, it could involve a forensic examination of salary histories and the employer advice on every single person with a Council car, at each or every of their councils, going back over the last 15 years...
And then we’ll have to start looking at people who retired since 2003 and see how they were treated. LGS has accepted that after we have reached a settlement for those currently employed, they will write to members of the relevant funds who have retired since 2003 to see if they want to make a claim. We’ve had a few members contact us from that category and we are committed to assisting mopping up for the retired members as well.
But this is a big deal. It is also a very, very, very big job. It won’t be finished this year but we will have a better idea of the figures after our next meeting on 8 March.
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