On Wednesday March 11, members of the United Services Union (USU)at Liverpool City Council will stop work to discuss management’s attacks on members’ working conditions. The stop work is to take place in Bigge Park in the centre of Liverpool from 10am.
The NSW government’s “Fit for the Future” process is requiring councils in Sydney to show significant cost savings or be amalgamated. Council’s senior management has used this process as a justification for mounting an attack on the conditions of its employees across the board.
Childcare workers and depot staff (concreters, road crews and others) enjoy a 36 hours week worked over four days a week on a rotating roster. The condition was negotiated in addition to award conditions, and is very popular among staff. Council management has told childcare workers that it can no longer afford this concession and has warned that it wants them to work a five day week in future, with no increase in pay. There are fears that management will attempt to extend the give-back to depot staff also.
Council’s indoor staff, largely located at the administration building at 33 Moore Street, work a 35 hour week, with an entitlement to flex-time, meaning that staff are able to take days off in lieu for time worked in addition to the required hours. Staff also enjoy access to long-service leave, training leave, paid maternity leave and other benefits.
In 2014 the Liberal-dominated Council employed Carl Wulff, former General Manager at Ipswich Council in Queensland as CEO. In Ipswich, Wulff outsourced all administrative roles in the council (such as customer service) to a third-party. Workers who had been council employees found themselves employed by Propel. Although the union had negotiated a retention of wages and conditions for former council staff, all new staff started on far lower wages and virtually none of the conditions enjoyed by former Council workers.
Wulff has told the USU that he is not interested in negotiating any such grandfathering agreement at Liverpool. Staff deemed expendable will be pushed to Propel, with an as-yet unexplained loss of conditions.
The new Liberal mayor of Liverpool, Ned Manoun, elected in September 2012 is in a hurry to make his mark. With eyes on a bigger political prize, he is attempting to secure his base for political flight on the backs of employees’ conditions.
The union hopes the stop work will be well attended, both by those immediately impacted and also those who stand in solidarity.
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