Inside the City’s staff cuts where employees are on edge as redundancies offered

Gold Coast City Council staffers are being updated on their future with 100 redundancies on the horizon. READ WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Our city’s second biggest workforce at council is being shaken up. Almost 4000 staffers are being updated daily about their working futures. Why now, and how will this roll out?

Several sources say there will be redundancies, some welcomed by older staffers.

On last Friday’s update, a staffer told your columnist: “The guts of it is, there will be 100 redundancies on offer. They reckon two hundred people put their hand up.”

The first challenge for City CEO Tim Baker will be who is leaving. You can lose a few oldies but what about young management talent.

“The people who are staying in those positions are the grovellers. People who are genuinely disliked (by the workers on the floor) because they are bootlickers. Unfortunately there will be decent people who get the arse,” the worker added.

Tough gig — council chief executive officer Tim Baker is having to find $75 million in savings. Picture: John Gass.

On the timing, a council media statement was released late after last Friday’s budget. It says the CEO has been tasked with finding $75 million in savings in 12 months.

This is all driven by Mayor Tom Tate and some councillors. “I have a mandate,” he tells councillors. His election promise has been to deliver rate increases equivalent to CPI rises.

“He (Mr Baker) keeps getting told you have to work off 2.7 per cent. It’s very hard for him. One year inflation was 7.7 per cent, another it was 5 per cent,” a council insider says.

“The staff’s EBA is now four per cent. It’s still hard for us to get tradesmen cheap. And the Mayor likes to give an early 10 per cent discount for rates payment.”

A senior city source, close to talks, says the CEO was given very clear instructions.

“The Mayor has tightened Baker’s KPIs within his contract. Baker has always wanted to be seen as popular among the staff. Hence his work-from-home rules and these people pods – the ridiculous work stations throughout the two Evandale buildings.

“No-one is using them yet they come at great cost. Councillors are also pissed off that virtually every desk phone is gone off staff desks. They all communicate via Teamsite and councillors bemoan they are not able to simply dial someone up.”

Gold Coast City Council CEO Tim Baker often works on the frontline with staffers to understand their jobs. Here he is pictured as a compliance office responsible for fines including parking infringements.

What are the CEO’s options? There are an estimated “38 savings ideas”. Eight on staffers.

These include vacating the Karp Court building, which would be a handy rental option and relocating staff to Waterside East and West.

The services and planning departments could be merged. Other options are to pause recruitment and not replace workers on non-frontline jobs.

All of this must be done to a tight deadline. Ideas will be presented, two weeks of consultation with employees, with a decision by late July.

In December last year, this masthead revealed staff survey results on the back of $18 million of ratepayer savings by Mr Baker.

An employee described council as a “nightmarish hellscape” impacting on their long term mental health.

If the CEO can turnaround those survey results and meet his current KPIs, the performance would be worthy of the best of the magicians to ever grace the stage across road at HOTA.

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Originally published as Inside the City’s staff cuts where employees are on edge as redundancies offered