Hobart City Council asks Fair Work Commission to shut down staff industrial action

Hobart City Council management has sought to end an intense dispute with its workers as the Fair Work Commission is called in to help mediate the situation.

Michael Stretton, the City of Hobart CEO. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The Hobart City Council has asked the Fair Work Commission to shut down industrial action launched by its staff amid bitter negotiations over a new employment agreement.

The Australian Services Union (ASU) has been authorised by the commission (FWC) to undertake the action, which commenced on Friday.

It involves 60 separate measures, including indefinite or periodic bans on the issuing of parking fines and the picking up of litter in the municipality.

The council’s management has accused the union of being overly vague regarding the timing of the various measures, complaining that the ASU has only said that they may occur at any point from September 20 onwards.

The council has lodged an application to the FWC for an order to stop the industrial action, arguing that there is a lack of specific information or details which would “enable the city to make reasonable preparations” to deal with its effects.

The Hobart City Council building on Davey Street, Hobart. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

The Mercury understands that council CEO Michael Stretton sent an email to staff on Thursday, warning them that if they engaged in certain partial work bans, the council would refuse to “accept the performance of any work by you until you are prepared to perform all of your normal work under your contract of employment”.

He said their participation in the bans meant they would not be entitled to “any payment during the period of the industrial action”.

The FWC on Friday ordered the ASU to retract a media release claiming the council had threatened to “lock out” its employees, a term to which the council strongly objected.

An ASU spokesman said the union accepted the phrase had a “particular industrial meaning” which was inaccurate in this particular case.

“The ASU maintains that the actions of the City of Hobart are a thuggish response to its members engaging in protected industrial action,” he said.

The council has offered wage increases of 3 per cent for all staff in the first two years of a proposed new enterprise bargaining agreement, while years three and four of the deal would provide pay rises at the level of the consumer price index (CPI).

Hobart Town Hall, where the elected members of the Hobart City Council meet.

In a statement to the Mercury, Mr Stretton noted that the previous agreement had seen employees enjoy a total wage increase of 12.7 per cent over the past two financial years.

“The city is not aware of any employee who refused to perform their duties today due to industrial action,” he said on Friday.

“The City of Hobart had informed staff that refusing to perform their usual duties as part of industrial action will result in employees forfeiting their pay for the period during which the bans are in place.

“This measure is consistent with industrial relations laws, where participation in any form of industrial action that results in an employee not undertaking all their duties can lead to withholding of wages.”