CITY WIELDS THE AXE
CASUAL Gold Coast City Council staff say they feel “shocked, hurt and abandoned” after being axed from their roles via letter.
It’s believed up to 200 who had worked at council-run leisure and indoor centres and stadiums in Runaway Bay, Carrara and Coomera were sent this week’s termination letter. They were told “it’s a standard protocol” that if a casual employee hasn’t had a shift in three months “their employment is terminated”.
CASUAL staff feel “shocked, hurt and abandoned” after being axed by the Gold Coast City Council via letter.
It is believed up to 200 who had worked at council-run leisure and indoor centres and stadiums at Runaway Bay, Carrara and Coomera were sent a termination letter this week.
They were told “it’s a standard protocol at the City that where a casual employee hasn’t been engaged for a shift for a period of three months, their employment is terminated”.
“This will mean as of 24 June 2020, unless you are engaged in a casual shift, your employment will cease.”
One worker said the threemonth clause should not apply because the only reason they were not offered shifts was because of COVID-19 shutdowns.
“It’s been impossible to get a shift since council-run stadiums weren’t allowed to open. I just feel shocked and hurt especially by the wording of the letter.”
The mother of one worker said her daughter “felt abandoned” and some casuals had worked for years at various council venues. “Loyalty and hard work meant nothing. She was always on time and reliable, went above and beyond especially when it was chaotic.”
The letter explained when council was able to “re-engage casual employees” this would be advertised using an “open merit-based recruitment process” and workers would be notified and invited to apply.
“Adding insult to injury, casuals like my daughter must now reapply, along with thousands of other out-of-work Gold Coasters,” the mother said.
“Financially and emotionally, she really thought she had a job to come back to. Some have worked as a casual for council for five years and now that basically means nothing.”
The Australian Workers Union Queensland branch secretary Steve Baker said: “This is just the latest attempt by Gold Coast City Council to use the pandemic as an excuse to go after their own workers and it’s nothing short of disgraceful.
“Many of these workers are long term and deserve better than getting a letter in the middle of a pandemic telling them they’re set to lose their jobs.
“The AWU is working closely with affected members. We’ll be making it clear to council this just isn’t good enough.”
A council spokesperson said: “The City is working hard to manage constantly changing service delivery requirements during COVID.
“We’ve commenced standing up our permanent employees and will be focusing on reengaging casual employees when our service levels warrant their employment.
“As it will be many months before services are able to return to normal, we are unable to commit to maintaining our pre-COVID levels of (casuals).”