Council CEO worker fury
GOLD Coast City Council workers downed tools in a bid for better work conditions at the same time council boss Dale Dickson gave a presentation about cost cutting.
About 200 council workers marched on council yesterday waving placards at a staged rally. One worker carried a sign which read “cull Dickson, not jobs”. Security refused representatives access to the council chambers.
While the workers downed tools, Mr Dickson was giving the councillors the first in a series of presentations about reform at the council. “We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact we are governing and leading one of the largest local governments in the country,” he said.
Mr Dickson’s future at city hall rests on council approving the reform package, which is understood to include the loss of jobs through natural attrition.
The CEO did not mention any job losses in his presentation, which was primarily a snapshot of the past five years.
Mr Dickson has to hand down the report by September 15 and will give another update to councillors in a fortnight.
The failure to mention job losses will be little comfort to the striking workers who vowed to take further strike action after managers allegedly intimidated them about taking authorised work bans.
The breakdown after marathon enterprise bargaining talks followed by strong management opposition to the bans has lit the fuse on a twomonth industrial campaign.
“They are calling them in (for one-on-one meetings) and saying to them ‘are you a member, show me your number’,” a union source said.
The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) was last month given permission for 10 authorised work bans in the next two months after talks with the council collapsed.
The AWU had described the council’s wage offer of 1.8 per cent and an additional 0.5 per cent as “insulting” after it sought 3.5 per cent in the first year.
Mr Dickson released a statement before the rally, saying: “We believe we have a fair and reasonable pay offer on the table which is CPI plus an extra 0.45 per cent.
“We have around 200 of our 3500 person workforce participating in industrial action, which I believe means the vast majority of our people are looking forward to finalising an agreement.”