Gympie council staff loses 226 staff in less than two years

New jobs figures paint a harrowing picture of the depths of Gympie council’s internal crisis as it’s revealed the organisation has lost the equivalent of almost half its workforce in less than two years.

Gympie Regional Council’s staff turnover since the March 2020 election have been called “concering” by acting CEO David Lewis.

The depths of Gympie Regional Council’s internal troubles have been further revealed with new figures revealing the organisation has lost the equivalent of half its workforce in the past two years.

The figures, provided to The Gympie Times by the council, reveal 226 staff members have left the organisation since April, 2020.

Almost 500 people are regularly employed by the council in any given year.

These departures included resignations, retirements, terminations, medical grounds, redundancy and the ending of fixed term contracts.

Almost three quarters of these departures (165) happened between June 2020 and January 2022.

Over the same 22-month period, the council had 190 new staff members start.

The job figures are the latest revelation for a council struggling with inner turmoil, including abysmal staff survey results, concerns over almost 100 jobs remaining unfilled, rumblings of industrial action as part of an ongoing pay battle between workers and management.

Acting CEO David Lewis said the staff turnover figures were concerning.

Gympie Regional Council’s staff turnover since the March 2020 election, with more than 200 workers exiting the organisation, have been called “concerning” by acting CEO David Lewis. (Picture: Gympie Regional Council)

“While we can’t fix the past and the decisions made, we now have the ability to turn this around – we as a council very much value our staff, the work that they do every day and their passion for our community,” Mr Lewis said.

Work had begun in the past three months on fixing the internal issues

“This is just the beginning, we have a lot of work to do and to support us in this work, we have brought in a workplace phycologist who is not only working with staff, but also running workshops and bringing staff together in groups to talk about what we can do, the changes that we can make, and ultimately solutions,” Mr Lewis said.

“We will listen and work with staff and ensure the changes and actions we take are from the perspective of our staff.

The staff turnover numbers, with the equivalent of half the organisation leaving in a two-year period, were well above what is experienced at other councils the same size as Gympie according Services Union organiser Tom Rivers (not pictured).

“We are also in the process of recruiting a ‘change management’ officer to better guide the organisation.

“We know however, this work has taken far too long to implement.”

Services Union organiser Tom Rivers said the number of staff to walk from the job was “very high” for a council the size of Gympie’s.

Mr Rivers said the figure should be closer to about a quarter of that, or about 10 per cent of the workforce.

“It highlights an unhappy staff,” Mr Rivers said, adding some staff stayed on continuing to try and “fight the good fight” but ongoing issues within the council “have just been ignored”.

“The council aren’t doing the easy things.”

One of these would be offering more than a 1.5 per cent pay rise previously described in a media release from the union as “measly”.

“Let’s draw a line in the sand and put something on the table; that’s a start,” Mr Rivers said.