Council salary impasse persists
CAIRNS Regional Council’s salary negotiation stalemate will drag on well into next year as unions try to split wage agreements by the colour of workers’ collars.
The unions have applied to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to cleave the enterprise bargaining agreement down the middle, allowing deals for office workers and outdoor workers to be negotiated separately.
The council’s CEO John Andrejic said a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Tuesday next week but a decision was unlikely until March, April or May next year.
Even if the EBA split is approved – and the council plans to fight it – the impasse that has already lasted almost two years will likely endure for many more months.
“It’s very difficult to continue to negotiate an agreement when you don’t know whether it will be one or two,” Mr Andrejic told this week’s council meeting.
“As we’ve flagged before, we are resisting that request from the unions.”
Electrical Trades Union organiser Robert Hill said the split was about giving whitecollar and blue-collar workers a say in their destiny.
“You won’t have one group voting on things that don’t affect them, that they’re not as passionate about,” he said.
“If the white-collar unions want to have a vote and it gets up, they could potentially have their agreement solved.”
ETU members are in for the long haul, having already rejected six wage offers and receiving four administrative payments and a 2.25 per cent administrative wage increase.
Division 1 councillor Brett Moller said the council had no option but to await the QIRC ruling.
“It is disappointing that we won’t get final resolution, but we must participate as is required under the legislation.”