Gympie Regional Council staff win 4% pay rise after protests
A more than year-long battle between Gympie Regional Council and its staff, which sparked protests in the streets and led to workers being locked out, has drawn to a close.
Gympie
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The contentious fight between Gympie Regional Council and its staff has finally ended with a new deal in which its lowest earning workers’ pay packets will increase by almost $5000 over the next two years.
The council and unions representing its workforce sealed the deal on a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement on April 3, 2023, bringing an end to a more than year-long battle which included protest marches and staff lockouts.
Pay increases under the new deal will vary depending over its three-year duration, including backpay.
A 3 per cent or $40 per week increase (whichever is greater) has been backdated for staff from December 19, 2021, while as of May 2022, workers under the EBA will also receive the greater of a 2.5 per cent rise or $35 per week.
As of May 2023, workers will receive the greater of either a 4 per cent increase, or $50 per week.
In the final year of the deal, which expires in May 2025, workers will receive at least an extra 3.5 per cent or $45 per week.
The rise is significantly higher than the 1.5 per cent annual increase the council reportedly tabled at the start of negotiations.
This offer, slammed as “unconscionable low” by the Services Union at the time, was the tipping point of a spiralling relationship which resulted in staff and union members marching through the Gympie city centre at the end of August, chanting “(Mayor) Glen Hartwig is full of s---” and “union power”.
Gympie council has been contacted for comment.
Services Union spokesman Tom Rivers said the protests were a “pivotal” part in the negotiations, with the deal finally being reached three months later.
Mr Rivers said the SU was “very happy with the outcome” but lamented it took the council “so long to come to its senses about wages”.
“We had to fight very, very hard” to get “what was getting paid elsewhere”, he said.
“I don’t know the last time industrial action took place at Gympie council.”
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