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Published: Tuesday, 12 May 2020 13:20
The announcement by the NSW Treasurer and Minister for Local Government on 26 April of $112.5 million to match the Federal Government’s JobKeeper program may have missed the publicity it deserved but it was a revelation for the industry with a cautious optimism about how councils would qualify. It was provided to complement and work alongside the Splinter Award and was a sign that if local government needed financial support, the State Government would provide it.
A lot of councils are desperate for a cash injection to keep services going but it’s clear that the requirements attached to JobKeeper don’t necessarily open the doors to financial assistance for councils. The Government needs to move quickly to announce how the money will be available and the funding needs to be significant and universal.
As this issue of depaNews is published, we’re not aware of any Council confident it will get enough of the $112.5 million and there are lots of GMs pessimistic about getting any. Neither have we heard, after the first flush when Sutherland dumped casuals from Council services closed by State government proclamation, of anyone stood down in the industry drawing upon the Splinter Award for income maintenance.
We’re all geared up ready, optimistic for easier access to the drastically needed funding to keep services flowing as the restrictions start to come off.
The good news is that the industry has almost universally accepted that it is an essential service and that even those employees who can’t be given useful work in their normal jobs can be transferred across to other areas of the Council’s operations where they can. This has meant, as far as we are aware, continuing employment despite councils encouraging employees to take leave at short notice, or even to start working shorter work weeks.
Next month we should have a better picture of how the money flows and whether the industry has managed to continue to protect the normal levels of employment.
In related news, on 12 May the NSW Parliament is scheduled to consider two important initiatives as part of a COVID-19 Emergency Measures Bill – titled COVID-19 Legislation Amendment (Emergency Measures) Bill (No 2) 2020 NSW.
The first, which is not before time, is found in Schedule 3 Amendment of other legislation where at 3.1 Annual Holidays Act 1944 No 31, the government proposes to allow cashing out annually of annual leave, with protections, and extending the opportunity for long service leave to be taken at half pay or full pay by agreement with the council, to accumulated annual leave.
It will be about bloody time, LGNSW and the unions have been pursuing governments for about fifteen years to allow half pay or double pay for annual leave but both the cashing out, and the double pay will only be available for two weeks of every twelve months. While employees will have more options than they do now, they don’t go anywhere near far enough. Double pay annual leave by agreement will fund superb holidays and other things and dramatically reduce annual leave accumulations at those councils which have failed to properly manage it over the years.
And the second, which seems like a grossly unacceptable restriction on local government’s authority, imposes a limit on expenditure on council administrative buildings above $1 million for the next two years, unless it’s an emergency or maintenance. Cramped, unsuitable accommodation is typical in local government and councils should not be prevented from doing things to provide suitable accommodation for staff to get the job done properly.
And we’re absolutely convinced that one of the reasons Cumberland keeps crying poor and asking staff to sacrifice and forfeit entitlements is that they run two administrative centres from the olden days of Holroyd and Auburn when they’d be much better off in one. And they could stop harassing staff by passing the hat around.
Finally, the Splinter Award has now been varied twice since it was made and there are now only Balranald, Blayney, Broken Hill, Eurobodalla, Georges River, Kyogle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Murray River, Northern Beaches, Richmond Valley, Strathfield and Wollongong not parties to it. Goulburn-Mulwarree is not a party but has a more beneficial Council Agreement with the unions.
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Published: Tuesday, 12 May 2020 13:20
The last time LG Professionals (sic) or as we like to call them, Local Government Poseurs, thought they should get themselves involved in employment and industrial issues did them no favours at all. Not sure at the time whether they were an employer organisation looking after the interests of the boss or trying to be an employee organisation looking after the interests of employees, they retired hurt.
But, LG Poseurs supremo, Narrabri GM Stewart Todd, has now launched an initiative to press GMs and CEOs to forfeit their annual pay increase under the standard contract.
The standard contract provides that senior staff annual pay increases are determined by the NSW Government’s Statutory and Other Offices Remuneration Tribunal like senior executives in the State Public Sector. There is also an opportunity for an annual increase for performance or other reasons.
But the President of LGP confidentially wrote to all GMs and CEOs (whether they were members or not) on 22 April claiming there was a ground swell that:
“Senior Officers, not subject to the Award, should ideally have some consistent and agreed to position. I have been approached by a number of metropolitan and regional General Managers/CEOs who strongly believe that in this COVID-19 climate and as leaders of our respective councils, there should be a wage freeze for senior staff. Given that we apply the NSW Remuneration Tribunal’s SOORT determinations, there has been a lot of reorientations(sic) that collectively we should agree to apply a zero increase for Senior Staff for twelve months, owning it and leading it.”
And that LGP could act on their behalf, you know, just like a union would.
“we are also no different from (sic) our community members when it comes to an expectation for a wage freeze at this time. Again I have had strong representations that this is the right thing to do, and what we should proactively do rather than in reaction to us doing nothing, and of course it would be better if we were united in an approach to this issue.”
Go, Comrade! That’s the way a union operates.
Sadly for the heroes of LGP, owning it and leading it wasn’t embraced wildly by the GMs and CEOs, and of the 93 votes recorded (remember there are 128 Councils), there were only 57 in favour - well short of a majority and effectively just over 40% of all GM’s. And if they intended no senior staff to get an annual increase this year, they should have asked other senior staff as well...
A bit presumptuous really but the President was big enough to acknowledge “there are also those that (sic) shunned the survey and were quite negative about the association even asking the question”. Yes, we agree, get back to doing what you do best...
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