Hinchinbrook Shire Council stuck on lowball offer

The Services Union is by your side for as long as it takes to get the right Certified Agreement (CA) for you at Hinchinbrook Shire Council. If today’s CA negotiations were any indication, we could be here a while. The Council remains wedded to its miserable wage offer of 4% (Year 1), 3.75% (Year 2) & 3.5% (Year 3).

On the positive side, we were able to get agreement on increasing paid parental leave to 10 weeks after 12 months’ service and we are awaiting the Council’s response on our request to pay superannuation while on this leave. We also got agreement on an additional two days’ natural disaster leave for staff required to work through disasters.

We will resume discussions on Friday 22 September. The rhino in the room remains the Council’s lowball pay proposal.  

Inflation has skyrocketed past the increases in your current CA. Your new agreement should address this, and recognise that underlying inflation still sits at 5.9%. Your Workplace Delegates will talk to you about our next steps. It is worth noting that members were able to achieve back-pay in the previous negotiations by taking industrial action.

Bargaining is rarely simple in the current economic climate. Our Union knows from experience that getting it done means getting involved. If you work with someone who is not yet a member and wants a better deal, joining is easy online.