Unreasonable refusal of a support person - Back to basics at Moreton Bay Regional Council

Being able to take along a support person to a meeting about your performance sounds like a pretty basic right doesn’t it? Especially if you are being performance managed.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the case at Moreton Bay Regional Council! We were forced to escalate a dispute to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to enforce this basic right.

Council needed some education on this topic and that is what they got yesterday. At yesterday's conference, Commissioner Dwyer said that bringing a support person to a meeting between an employee and employer is a fundamental expectation to safeguard procedural fairness. He described having a support person as the ‘corner stone of procedural fairness.’

In relation to our member in question, Commissioner Dwyer said there was to be no unreasonable refusal to have a support person for any meeting which related to his performance in the future.

If you know members who are being denied the right to have a support person at a meeting with the employer, forward them this email. Members can call Services Connect on 07 3844 5300 or speak to their Workplace Delegates.

If you work with colleagues that haven’t joined the Union yet, forward them this email and encourage them to join.