Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Scott Cowan from the Australian Services Union explains why the Darwin City Council voted down a 2% pay rise enterprise agreement

Transcript

Scott Cowan from the Australian Services Union explains why the Darwin City Council voted down a 2% pay rise enterprise agreement · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that yesterday apparently two thirds of Darwin
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: City Council staff voted down this proposed enterprise agreement. Now
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: bit more about it is Scott Cowan from the Australian
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Services Union.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Scott.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Good morning Scott.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: What exactly were our council workers voting on.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: So, I've heard it was Friday the vote came here,
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: I came so there was a We've been negotiating along
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: with other unions of the City of Darwin throughout the
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: last six months or so for a new enterprise agreement,
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: but unfortunately management decided to put a proposed agreement out
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: to vote that didn't have the endorsement of the ASU,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: the United Workers Union or the AMWU, and we encourage
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: our members to vote, know, So it was pleasing to
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: see that two thirds of cancil workers supported the union
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: position and rejected the officer management on Friday.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: So I understand that they were offered a two percent
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: increase their pay, So.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: It was a complicated deal that management was putting. But
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: the ongoing wage increases for the longer term employees would
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: have been two percent a year.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: That's correct, right, And what are they after, Scott?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Well, we had I think, you know, particularly given cost
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: of living increases and I heard you talk before about
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: how expensive petrol is, so I'm sure your listeners could understand.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: We had quite a modest claim for a three percent
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: wage increase per annum and for essentially a rollover of
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the current agreement with some additional conditions. Unfortunately, management of
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: the City of Darwin sought to make some widespread structural
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: changes to the agreement that would have seen significant cuts
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: to employment conditions. So it wasn't just pay that our
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: members were voting on. There were provisions in the enterprise
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Agreement that were sought to be removed that an ADU
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: would have threatened job security, would have reduced redundancy entitlements,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: and it would have changed the rules in terms of
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: a fair, fair set of play, things like discipline, reaction,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: woman's management, to make sure that's a fair process in place.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: So it wasn't just pay.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Was the other conditions part of it.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: The editions were also vital important for us, Scott.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: How many staff are we talking about here at the council?
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, I can't remember the numbers, to be honest with you.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: At the City of Darwin, but there'll be in the
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: order of hundreds of employees.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And where to from here, Well.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: We were notified by management of the boat on Friday.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: All we've been told so far is that their current
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: offers being withdrawn. We don't have an alternate offer from
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: them yet, but we'll be looking to meet with management
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: as soon as we can in the next few weeks
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: to continue our negotiations and hopefully this message sense of
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: you know, this message from staff sends a strong signal
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: to management that they need to improve their offer and
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: not put an agreement to vote that cuts conditions, and
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: put an agreement to vote that has a fair wage increase,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: particularly given the cost of living increase just going up
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: and up at the moment for our members.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Well, Scott, please do keep us up today, let us
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: know how things progress. I really appreciate you having your
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: chat today.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: No worries. Thanks for your tom.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you