City of Gold Coast Bargaining Chips - Stalling Tactics?

The TSU was by your side during the recent certified agreement negotiations meeting with the City of Gold Coast (CoGC) last Wednesday.

At this meeting, we responded to the Council’s LOG OF SHAME and firmly rejected all the unacceptable items they tabled. However, we did agree on three claims they proposed in their log:

  • Clause Redrafting - To provide clarity and ensure compliance with applicable legal and industrial obligations. (This is standard in any EBA negotiations).
  • Health and Wellbeing - Continuation and enhancement of the Health and Wellbeing plan.
  • Further Claims - To reserve the right to bring forward additional claims, proposals, or amendments during bargaining as circumstances evolve. (Again, a standard practice that typically drops away as negotiations progress).

All other claims in their appalling log were rejected. We made it clear: workers at CoGC should not be losing conditions of employment, especially when they are already among the lower-paid councils in Queensland and working for a council with the best balance sheet out of any local government in Australia as quoted by the CEO on his CEO live on Wednesday June 3rd.

We also raised questions about their claims, including the removal of the 10-day fortnight. The Council continues to argue that the 10-day fortnight causes “equity issues,” which we believe is unfounded. It has not been an issue for the last 20 years and was not a concern when the Council at the previous negotiation sought to increase the 10-day fortnight from 500 to an additional 1500 positions capped at 2000 positions.

The Council’s explanations seem inconsistent - re these claims just bargaining chips intended to delay negotiations or push through a substandard wage offer? We are committed to preventing this and need every Stream A worker standing with us.

We say it doesn’t have to be this difficult. The Council should drop these claims now and focus on providing workers with job security, fairness, and a reasonable wages offer. The Council will respond to our log of claims at the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday 24 June.

If you haven’t already, please join our Facebook group, COGC TSU Updates. It’s dedicated to all things related to the COGC certified agreement negotiations. All staff are welcome - please invite your colleagues to join.

We will continue to keep you informed.