Neil Henderson
November 2, 2015
The Services Union intends to appeal a Queensland Industrial Relations Commission decision which it says does nothing to restore the working conditions of council employees.
The union says conditions were “stripped away” by the LNP State Government’s Legislation and Award Modernisation process.
A union spokesman said the incoming Labor Government kept its election promise with the making of the Industrial Relations (Restoring Fairness) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 which aimed to reverse the previous government’s legislation.
However, the union says Monday’s decision by QIRC has ignored this legislation.
“This decision simply devalues employees work and the contribution they make to their communities,” union secretary Neil Henderson said.
“It also clearly supports the agenda of councils which is to drive down industry employment conditions as a way to deal with managing operational costs post the loss of Federal and State Government grants.
“Our members are extremely angry that the QIRC has ignored the Palaszczuk Government’s requirement that conditions not be reduced or removed which devalues the work they do. In our view the QIRC has fallen into legal error.”
Mr Henderson said the State Government should be very concerned by the decision “which flies in the face of the government’s specific requirement that conditions not be removed or reduced”.
“Councillors and Mayors of those particular Councils now have an opportunity to do the right thing by maintaining exiting conditions and paying their workforce a long overdue wage increase,” he said.
“And for those that don’t, our union will campaign against them.”
