REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday February 20, 1987

ALDERMAN Peter Webber labelled the law an ‘ass’ in an emotional outburst in defence of scrapping the nine-day fortnight for city council’s white-collar workers.

And Ald. Lester Hughes said he thought the Australian Arbitration and Conciliation Commissioner hearing the Gold Coast dispute, F.W. Brown, was ‘out of order’ in directing the council to list reasons for its decision.

Aldermen Hughes and Webber lashed out during a special full city council meeting in the wake of moves by the Municipal Officers Association which, it was feared, could see the dispute escalate into a statewide issue.

Association spokesman Ron Whittington said an ‘allembracing claim’ to preserve the status quo under nine-day fortnight agreements affecting members at as many as 18 local government authorities in Queensland had been lodged with the commission.

A similar application had also come from the Association of Professional Engineers, Australia.

Both associations had spokesmen poised to push the claim if the Gold Coast talks broke down.

“If talks break down on the Gold Coast, it would be our intention to pursue that claim,” Mr Whittington said.

Ald. Webber told the council meeting he was “amazed with the law “and said the nine-day agreement stayed in force until it was dissolved by the mutual written consent of both parties, or after three months’ notice of a party’s intention to withdraw.

“It doesn’t say there have to be reasons given,” he told the meeting.