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.


Above: Workplace Delegates and members at Moreton Bay Regional Council continue with their claims for a fair EBA.