Gympie council staff expected to walk off job over pay offer

Turmoil continues to engulf Gympie Regional Council with staff voting to take industrial action over a pay rise battle that shows no sign of being resolved. Here is the latest:

Gympie Regional Council is facing a likely staff walkout as hundreds of workers remain at loggerheads with management over a potential pay rise.

A media release from the Services Union on Wednesday revealed its members within the council “overwhelmingly” backed taking industrial action as the negotiations dragged on.

SU organiser Tom Rivers said workers were “p----d off”with the progress of the negotiations, which were now in their seventh month.

Mr Rivers declined to reveal the proportion of members in favour of taking action but said it was a “vast, vast majority”of those polled internally at the end of June 2022.

It was now in their hands to decide how long any stoppage would be; a vote among council staff members was underway with the outcome to determined after Wednesday, July 13, 2022.

Gympie Regional Council’s staff are expected to endorse a work stoppage as its fight with the organisation's management over a pay rise drags on, with Services Union organiser Tom Rivers saying workers were “p----d off” with a 1.5 per cent offer on the table.

A work stoppage would not be a step too far given the 1.5 per cent offer on the table right now, Mr Rivers said.

He pointed to Ipswich where council workers walked off the job in April over a 9 per cent increase across three years, double the offer on the table in Gympie.

“We’re always happy to sit down with the council and talk about money; 1.5 per cent is a joke,” Mr Rivers said.

“They’ve got to take this issue seriously.”

The health of the council’s internal culture has been under the spotlight in recent months following a scathing staff survey which Mr Lewis said represented an “all time low”.

Gympie council acting CEO David Lewis said management’s position “has not changed”.

Acting council CEO David Lewis said the council’s position on negotiations remained unchanged and it looked forward to the union returning to the table to continue them.

“Our current certified agreement remains in place until the negotiation of the new agreement,” Mr Lewis said.

“We are continuing to work with unions to progress this as soon as possible and we have no intention of delaying this process.

“At this stage, we are waiting for the collective unions to come back to the table, so that we can continue our negotiations.”

He said negotiations around clauses within any new agreement needed to be finished before a final pay rise offer could be determined.