By Oliver Lees
Unionised Hume council staff members will stop work for half a day tomorrow as council and it’s staff continue to negotiate a wage agreement.
Staff members who are members of the Australian Services Union (ASU) will strike from 8.30am to 12.30pm.
Star Weekly reported in October that the ASU was considering disruptive industrial action if the wage increase for Hume council’s 1200 employees did not improve on the 1.5 per cent increase proposed by council.
With negotiations of the enterprise agreement still under way, an ASU spokesperson said that council had not moved on its proposed wage increase of 1.5 per cent, except for a 0.3 per cent bonus if certain key performance indicators are met by council staff.
The union is concerned that the proposed wage increase is well below the cost of living increase reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (3.8 per cent.)
ASU secretary Lisa Darmanin said the union’s members had been left with no choice but to take action while negotiations stalled.
“ASU members want to reach an agreement with Hume management but won’t accept a pay offer that will make it more difficult each year to pay their bills as living costs increase faster than wages,” Ms Darmanin said.
“The below-inflation pay offer would ratchet up the financial pressure [on] Hume staff as the cost of living kept rising faster than wages.”
Ms Darmanin said workers had received a 2.25 per cent wage increase in the last enterprise agreement.
“At the same time as trying to make life harder for employees, Hume is sitting on a huge accumulated surplus that is growing each year,” Ms Darmanin said.
“Councillors at Hume City Council need to consider whether they support the wage suppressing actions of management that will unnecessarily make [life] harder for loyal Hume employees.”
Hume council chief executive Sheena Frost told Star Weekly that council was “disappointed” in the strike action given that another bargaining meeting on the matter would occur today.
“Council has and will continue to negotiate in good faith with all parties to ensure we have an agreed Enterprise Agreement in place as soon as practical,” Ms Frost said.
“Council is working to ensure appropriate plans are in place to minimise any impacts to services as a result of any action.”
The ASU confirmed that the strike action would not impact council operated COVID-19 testing or vaccination.
