Workers unions take Adelaide City Council to employment tribunal
Adelaide City Council will next week face the employment tribunal for sending workers home for a month - rather than investigating options to have them work from home or perform other essential tasks.
City
Don't miss out on the headlines from City. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Australian Services Union says Adelaide City Council workers were wrongly sent home in coronavirus pandemic
- Latest SA coronavirus updates
Adelaide City Council will next week face the South Australian Employment tribunal to fight what a workers’ union has called a “new low in employer/employee relations”.
The Australian Workers’ Union and Australian Services Union SA + NT has started proceedings against the council for sending employees home last week amid the coronavirus pandemic.
About 400 workers at the council’s Town Hall were sent home for a month with only “essential” staff remaining on the job.
They were gifted two weeks leave but need to use annual leave for the remainder.
Australian Workers’ Union SA Branch secretary Peter Lamps called the council’s decision an “amateurish response to the latest crisis”.
“The AWS believes the actions of Adelaide City Council last Wednesday in unilaterally and without notice forcing workers to take leave as a new low in employer/employee relations,” Mr Lamps said.
The Advertiser reported yesterday that the Australian Services Union had threatened to launch a dispute because it ‘breached employment laws” and “was not a legitimate use” of the stand down procedures in the South Australian Fair Work Act.
Australian Services Union SA + NT secretary Abbie Spencer said the council’s move to stand down employees was “out of step” and not flexible.
MORE NEWS
19 storey development to tower over Publishers Hotel
Booze, drones and neighbourly love during COVID-19
Wedding boutique closes with more than $700,000 debt
“The council did not investigate opportunities for staff to work from home or perform other essential tasks,” Ms Spencer said.
“Now is the time for the City of Adelaide to mirror the flexibility and innovation we are seeing in other councils.”
Adelaide chief executive Mark Goldstone stood by his decision because the council did not have the capacity for all employees to work “productively” at home.
“Not all of our people can meaningfully work from home either,” Mr Goldstone said.
“We’re using this four-week period to build the capacity of our systems and technology to increase the number of people who can work from home, and plan for how to reactivate our people and our services.
“We are already bringing some people back in as we need and can safely do so.”
The matter has been listed for Monday, April 6.