Redland City Council – Your reward through the Commission’s gateway

As your ally in the workplace, The Services Union will continue to challenge Redland City Council’s tactics which appear to be aimed at stampeding you into its unfair three-year deal.

The CEO Andrew Chesterman, who is fantastic at sending emails but failed to turn up at the negotiation meeting last week when it counted, has sent communications to employees that our Union must address.

The Council’s current offer completely ignores what is happening in the economy and your capacity to cope with the highest cost of living in 32 years. With reports yesterday that we could see energy prices increase by up to 50% next year, why would you want to support a long-term deal that most likely would diminish the value of your wages by more than the total value of the increases offered? The Council has claimed that inflation will decline towards the end of the agreement. Even if this were certain, it does not recognise the damage that would be done to the value of your wages at the start of the proposed Agreement!

Our Union would also like to correct the misinformation in the CEO’s messaging on 26 October, which stated that he had written to the Union and not received a response. We have received no correspondence from the CEO. We did receive a completely unrelated document about a $63,000 partnership with Reward Gateway. While we know you deserve the reward of a decent pay increase and we might have to work our way through some interesting gateways to get it, perhaps the Council has sent us the wrong document?

We know you are tired of Council’s games. The Council itself stated at the bargaining table that it could attempt to fix the impasse by either providing an immediate interim pay increase (as other Councils have done) or by applying to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC). As the Council has chosen to do neither, The Services Union will today seek the QIRC’s assistance to get this negotiation back through the gateway and onto the tracks. In the meantime, ask your Council why it will not accept the validity of your argument that a decent increase in wages should have been paid yesterday!

Regardless of the windows and gateways we need to jump through to get there, The Services Union will be by your side to get you the pay increase you deserve. If you work with someone who is not yet a member, remind them that joining is easy online .