Union presses for further pay talks at Mt Isa City Council

Yesterday The Services Union wrote to Mount Isa City Council to urgently request further negotiations to finalise your new Certified Agreement (CA) and to point out the following key issues.

Since your current CA nominally expired, you’ve only had a 2.5% administrative increase, while CPI has skyrocketed by 7.3% (June 2022) and then 6.3% (June 2023). While you clearly need a pay increase to cover the increase in the cost of living, there are other conditions of employment such as paid parental leave which also need to be improved.

Further, with the legislated Superannuation Guarantee (i.e., what employers outside of Local Government must pay) set to reach the local government equivalent of 12% by 2025, the attraction and retention incentive of enhanced local government superannuation is becoming a thing of the past.

While we’re always keen to resolve bargaining issues at the table, we have the additional resource of the Protected Industrial Action which members voted strongly for and which has been authorised by the Industrial Registrar.

The Council may seek the assistance of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission at any time if it chooses. This will only change the venue for the discussion. It won’t make the Council’s failure to come to grips with the cost of living and other issues anymore persuasive. In any event our observation is that the Council could do with all the help it can get!

Stay tuned for further updates and please support your outgoing Workplace Delegate Maddi Ross and her incoming replacement Katelin Hovi. If you work with someone who is not yet a member and wants a better deal, remind them that joining online is quick.