Gympie Regional Council Still Disappoints.

The Services Union knows how important it is to maintain the real value of your pay at Gympie Regional Council, and we’re by your side throughout these prolonged negotiations for your new Certified Agreement.

Congratulations to all members who participated in industrial action on Wednesday 31 August. While it is never easy to walk off the job, you are ensuring that the Council knows 3.5% a year isn’t good enough!

The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) determined the state wage case earlier this week. The QIRC’s Full Bench rejected submissions supporting a 3% increase made on behalf of Local Authorities – including Gympie Regional Council – by the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ), and instead delivered an increase of 4.6% or $40 (whichever is greater).

The Full Bench said:

[46] The Full Bench does not accept the LGAQ submission. The LGAQ has failed to outline the methodology adopted by it to support its submission for a 3 per cent increase to award wages. The further material filed on 22 August does not address why a 4.6 per cent increase is not reasonable, or, more precisely, why 3 per cent is.

The same reasoning applies at your workplace. The Council needs to come to grips with the fact that CPI is presently at 6.1% nationally (7.3% for Brisbane) and underlying inflation is now 4.9%. These aren’t just random numbers. They are numbers that point to the rapidly diminishing value of your take-home pay at a time when all the indicators continue to suggest that the rate of inflation will worsen before improving. Clearly the Council’s negotiating team just wants to ignore the current economic circumstances. The Council’s current position effectively means that the real value of your pay will reduce by more than the value of the first increase on offer, before you even leave the building.

The Services Union will host a members-only Zoom meeting on Monday evening to discuss our next steps. Watch this space for an email with registration details. In the meantime, hold your heads up high and celebrate the fact that Union members have rejected a series of undercooked pay offers starting with the Council’s initial position of 1.5% right up to the latest half-baked proposal of 3.5%! It’s time for your colleagues to get on board for a fair pay deal by joining here.