Maroondah Council cuts 480 staff, Australian Services Union calls for redeployment
A workers union claims a council in Melbourne’s east is refusing to hold talks about redeployment opportunities for nearly 500 staff left out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak — but the council disagrees.
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A workers union claims a council in Melbourne’s east has refused to hold redeployment talks after almost 500 staff were cut due to the coronavirus outbreak.
But Maroondah Council says it has communicated with the Australian Service Union and has offered redeployment opportunities to some affected workers.
The union claimed the council had stood down 480 workers from its leisure venues, including its pools, sports facilities and the Karralyka Centre.
The council’s chief executive, Steve Kozlowski, confirmed the figure, saying the council had to stand down 56 part-time workers and had been “not able to provide rostered shifts” for 424 casuals.
He said the casuals were technically not stood down as they “only work when they are offered shifts and it suits them to work the available shifts on offer”.
ASU state branch secretary Lisa Darmanin said it was the highest number of job losses it was aware of at a Victorian council.
Ms Darmanin said the union had started an online petition on Megaphone.org.au, asking Maroondah’s councillors to advocate for affected staff to be given alternative work.
She claimed the council was taking “a very narrow approach” to job roles, and had been the only council not to hold talks with them.
“What sets Maroondah apart from other councils in Victoria is they are actively refusing to redeploy anybody and feel there’s no obligation to do this,” she said.
“Our concern is we have been trying to engage with the council about a consultative process to redeploy these workers into other areas of service, without success.”
The union launched disputes over worker redeployment against Maroondah and 15 other Victorian councils with the Fair Work Commission, with the Maroondah hearing adjourned on May 4.
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Mr Kozlowski said the council held talks with the union before and during the hearing and was available for more talks.
He said the council had offered various redeployment opportunities which had been taken up by “a number” of stood down employees, and it had also applied for funding for 137 positions in the State Government’s Working For Victoria program.
The council expects to lose $5 million in savings and is missing out on $10 million in expected income from its leisure venues due to the virus outbreak.