Moreton Bay Regional Council - Movement At The Bargaining Table
The Services Union knows that you and your fellow members at
Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) often every day go above and beyond
the strict minimum requirements of your job to deliver the best for our
community. The opportunity to negotiate new wages and conditions is a
good time to reflect on our collective commitment to community and each
other and what’s important at work and how we can progress our claims.
Our Union met with the Council yesterday to progress our claims for
our new Certified Agreement (CA) and there was significant movement on
many of our claims.
Improvements:
- Redundancy clarity – New drafting of the current clause has
taken out the CEO’s discretion to approve redundancies, which means that
if you are made redundant and there are no suitable alternative jobs
for you, then you will be entitled to receive up to a maximum of 58
weeks redundancy. The current clause has led to two of our members being
provided with only 16 weeks’ pay after nearly 60 years of service
between them with the Council! A great improvement.
- Natural Disaster Leave – New drafting of this clause makes it
clearer that the CEO can determine that a natural disaster has occurred
rather than waiting for the disaster to be declared. Making it clear
that Council does not have to wait until the ‘declaration of a disaster
situation’ is a positive improvement to the current clause, particularly
when we think about the recent floods.
- RDO Banking – Increase in staff’s ability to bank RDOs up from seven days to ten days.
- Parental Leave – While Council have not moved on the claim for 10 weeks parental leave and haven’t budged an inch on partner parental leave, we have been able to get Council to agree to pay superannuation on the paid component of parental leave.
At the next meeting in Caboolture on Tuesday 17th May our Union will
be making it clear again to Council that the wage relativities between
indoor and outdoor rates of pay at your workplace are out of alignment
to the detriment of you and your Stream A colleagues. We will also carry
on discussing the shoddy penalty rates arrangement that Council has
with any 5 in 7 members in libraries, galleries and museums.
What are wage relativities at MBRC?
Wage relativity is the relationship between the wages of staff in the
same Council and within our Queensland Local Government Industry. Such
relativities reflect differences in training requirements, skill levels
and responsibilities.