• Private certifier gets nailed – depaNews November 2010
  • Wake up and don't worry - depaNews February 2011
  • HR professionals – depaNews January 2009
  • Upper Hunter gets coy – depaNews March 2011
  • BPB kills off B1 & B2 - depaNews July 2009
  • Councillors behaving badly Part One - depaNews December 2009
  • Councillors behaving badly Part Two - depaNews December 2009
  • Who is Peter Hurst? - depaNews August 2010
  • It's time to go, Peter Part One - depaNews September 2006
  • It's time to go Peter Part Two - depaNews December 2006
  • BPB survey on accreditation – depaNews November 2008
  • Improbable things start to come true – depaNews June 2010
  • Sex, lies and development – depaNews February 2008
  • Pizza man feeds non-members – depaNews April 2011
  • Bankstown wins HR Award – depaNews December 2010
  • Love him or loathe him - depaNews October 2007
  • Good Bad & Ugly issue – depaNews November 2010
  • Upper Hunter lets the dogs out - depaNews February 2011
  • IRC puts brakes on belligerent seven – depaNews June 2009
  • It's Tweedledum and not Tweedledumber - depaNews March 2007
  • 28 April International Day of Mourning - depaNews April 2009
  • IRC orders Hurst 'apology' published - depaNews December 2010
  • Debate on IR policy – depaNews August 2007
  • Developer agrees to apologise – depaNews November 2010
  • OH&S Day of Mourning – depaNews April 2009

The Development and Environmental Professionals' Association (depa)

Welcome to the depa website. We are an industrial organisation representing professional employees working in local government in New South Wales in a variety of jobs in the fields of environmental health, public health, building and development control and planning.

We take a broad approach to our responsibilities to members and give advice and assistance on professional issues as well as industrial and workplace issues. We understand what members do at work and that allows us to take a holistic approach. Read more about us...

This site will keep you up-to-date with union news and the diverse range of workplace advocacy issues we deal with daily. We have made it easy for members to contact us with online forms and quickly Join depa online nowaccess information from our extensive FAQs.

Pizza man feeds non-members – depaNews April 2011

Pizza man

Pizza Man says "I wouldn't bother answering..."

In a real snub to union members at Hurstville Council, Pizza Man, General Manager Victor Lampe has told his HR Manager he “wouldn’t bother” responding any further to our investigation of why he shouted pizzas for the freeloaders on Union Picnic Day. In the March issue of depaNews we reported that employees at Hurstville who had chosen not to be union members, and were not entitled to Union Picnic Day under the Local Government (State) Award, were all provided with a free lunch by the General Manager.

We were interested to find out why and in the March issue said we would pursue this and publish the Council's response.

Well, it's been hard to squeeze anything out of Victor. He is far more interested in feeding people who refuse to join unions than he is of responding to us.

First, he had his HR Manager respond to our e-mail and she said "lunch was a small gesture of appreciation in the circumstances". She rejected our suggested explanations but the circumstances are intriguing.

These are people not entitled to a day off by virtue of the choice they have made about union membership. They're entitled to decide they don’t want to join a union and while they can still receive the benefits the unions have won over the years in the Award or the various precedents protecting employees, they wouldn’t ordinarily be entitled to anything else - like a free lunch for choosing not to be union member. We asked “are you saying that the free lunch was a small gesture of appreciation to people who, had they been union members, would not have been there at all?"

The HR Manager responded that "non-membership of the union was not the reason lunch is provided." She did confess, in reply to one of our questions, that the Council provided the lunch, not the GM personally. So it came from public monies.

So, we asked “if non-membership was not the reason lunch was provided, what was?” And when this was ignored we wrote to Pizza Man himself and he copied us in to a message to the HR Manager:

“I wouldn't bother answering his additional question as I think you have already provided enough information".

We remain blissfully unaware of the GM’s motivation in providing a free lunch to people who already get lots of things for nothing. Neither do the employees at Hurstville understand. The union members, of course, wondering when they get their pizza or the apology for Victor’s insensitivity and the non-members feeling much more appreciated by the GM for being at work when they had no entitlement to be anywhere else.

We wouldn’t want to be unfair to Victor, so you can check the unedited exchange here.

And we hear that the GM even entertained the non-members to maximise their pleasure for the day.

Robbo's Pearls...

What’s happening to the senior staff changes?

On 15 October 2021 the LGNSW Board, spurred on by a second recommendation from another ICAC investigation (Operation Dasha) to get rid of the “no reason” sacking of senior staff, unanimously resolved to do precisely that. LGNSW would now support the views we and the other unions have been expressing for decades. This was a historic consensus.

The consensus was to amend section 340 of the Local Government Act 1993 to ensure that the only Senior Staff positions, on term contracts and denied access to the industrial relations commission would be the general manager. And to amend the Industrial Relations Act to lift the remuneration level for access on unfair dismissals.

All we needed was the OLG and the Government to cooperate. That was close enough to two and a half years ago. 

There was some venal opposition from the usual suspects, but the policy was overwhelmingly reaffirmed at the LGNSW Special Conference on 1 March 2022. That was close enough to two years ago.

In April 2023 a Labor Government was elected in NSW. We all had a reasonable expectation they’d be more supportive of employment changes that reduced the risk of corruption and provided fairer working conditions. They say they are.

What have you blokes been doing?

Hoenig and Minns

It’s in the Minister’s office but nothing’s happening. It has been:

since the Government and the Minister were appointed on 5 April 2023. We are still waiting for the legislative changes required.

ELECTION NOTICE

The NSW Electoral Commission is conducting an election for our Committee of Management. We emailed all members about this on 6 March and on Monday 11 March the EC will be posting a Call for Nominations to all financial members.
Here is a link to the Electoral Commission if you are interested in the process -  including nomination forms. 

depa 2024 Election of Officers

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