Toowoomba Regional Council reports $7m labour force underspending due to EBA negotiations, job vacancies

A councillor has questioned why the Toowoomba Regional Council has spent $7m less on its labour force than it had budgeted. Several reasons have been given.

Rebecca Vonhoff. Photo Bev Lacey

Bitter disputes between Toowoomba Regional Council and the unions as well as hundreds of job vacancies are being blamed for the organisation underspending more than $7m on its workforce this financial year.

The factors behind “huge variation” was raised at council’s ordinary meeting on Tuesday, where Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff highlighted how the organisation’s labour force budget in January was only at $68m, well below the projected year-to-date total of $75m and a variance of nine per cent.

The council had already revised down its labour budget by nearly $1m to $124m earlier in the financial year.

Finance and business strategy executive manager Paul Reynolds also revealed the council had 180 vacant positions, many of which were in the process of being filled.

This means more than nine per cent of positions within the organisation are currently vacant.

“Can you explain that to us and is (it) attributable entirely to the unfilled positions?” Ms Vonhoff asked.

“It’s a huge variation, isn’t it?”

Mr Reynolds said the variance was due partly to the vacancies but also because of backpay matters related to the protracted EBA negotiations with unions.

“I believe it’s a combination of things, including of a backpayment associated with the enterprise bargaining,” he said.

“If we were to factor that in, that (backpay) would be about $2.4 or $2.5 million.

“There are 180 positions that are vacant, there are about 110 of them are in some form of recruitment activity so the vast majority are progressing.

“The other offset that would exist between an underspend in labour and overspend in materials and services ($4.1m) is the increased use of labour hire, which flows through the materials and services side of the budget, rather than the labour side.

“The EBA process is still going ahead, we’re meeting with the unions next week so we’re moving forward with that and getting to a position where we get to a vote.”

The EBA negotiations have been ongoing since last year, during which unions organised industrial action to push the council towards a better deal.

The council was contacted for further comment about job vacancies.