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Published: Friday, 09 August 2024 14:39
The NSW Government has announced massive funding of training in local government. $252.2 million will be allocated to councils over the next six years to employ 1300 apprentices and trainees across the state. It is planned to be ready and available for school leavers at the end of this year.
This is delivering on an ALP election promise to provide funding to local government beyond the reach of individual councils. We note and appreciate the role of the USU in both the development of the policy and its delivery. Good job, Graeme.
This will train the next generation of skilled workers, keep jobs in local government and reverse the hostile trend of councils outsourcing jobs to contractors.
Contracting out is a poison across the industry, undermining permanent employment and putting many councils in breach of their obligations under the Local Government State Award to provide full-time permanent employment, and not replace permanent employees with contractors.
We pursued Wingecarribee in November 2021, citing their obligations to provide adequate staff and other resourcing. Then followed an extremely slow restructuring process, and a turnover of directors, one leaving instead of “committing career suicide” by participating in a process that wouldn’t be fully funded.
Our members revealed to a new director at a meeting in January that the Council had 18 external planning contractors with live DAs - yes, that’s not a typo, 18. Not just spending more money than would ordinarily be spent on full-time staff but requiring planning staff to manage and peer review work done by “consultants” who were often less experienced and qualified than they were. The new Director didn’t know the extent of the contracting and left as well.
The Government’s decision will assist in resolving this problem. Premier Chris Minns announced “this is the biggest state government investment in directly hiring new apprentices in recent memory and will play a critical role in building better communities across New South Wales.
From electricians and landscapers to plumbers and planners, these 1300 new apprentices and trainees will play a key role in building the homes and communities of our state’s future.
This investment will make a big difference in smaller towns and regional communities where fewer pathways for formal training currently exist.”
Minister Local Government Ron Hoenig said “Councils have been crying out for a solution to the looming skills crisis for years, but the previous government did nothing to address the problem.
“This funding will provide a much-needed boost for our councils which are responsible for providing the services and facilities communities use every day.”
The Minister said it would ensure councils were well equipped to build the infrastructure facilities and to support growing communities as part of the Government’s commitment to resolving the housing crisis.
The Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education Steve Whan said, “a decade of neglect and cuts to the skills training in local government sector by the former government has resulted in an alarming shortage of skilled workers and no solutions until now to ensure the sustainability of this critical workforce.”
We don’t normally quote politicians like this, but for $250 million, we can make an exception.
And it’s great news for regional NSW.
It’s time to start thinking about what your community needs, and ensuring that your Council gets its act together to provide proper supervision and mentoring for trainees and apprentices on the program.
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Published: Friday, 09 August 2024 10:47
On 1 August, the new CEO at Shoalhaven City Council, Robyn Stevens, met with three Directors and told them she was restructuring and they would be terminated under their standard contracts and paid a redundancy. She provided organisation charts and details and followed this up with a slideshow for 30 or so managers that would see the new structure implemented on 4 November, and included even more organisational structures. No imprecision, a commitment that this would happen, and will happen by 4 November.
This is very unusual timing (potentially unprecedented) for a CEO to initiate a restructure so close to an election. The community will get a chance to vote on 14 September, and the caretaker period, where councils can’t do much prior to an election, starts in a week’s time.
More importantly, section 223 of the Local Government Act makes it abundantly clear that it is the Council’s responsibility to resolve the structure, not the GM/CEO.
There are two potential breaches of the Local Government Act here - section 223 prescribing the Council’s right to determine the structure after consulting with the GM, and providing that establishing the structure is the responsibility of the Council, and section 337 requiring the Council to be consulted on the dismissal of senior staff.
In neither the meeting with the directors who will be sacked, nor with the 30 managers, did the CEO and slides acknowledge the Council’s role in determining the structure, nor in the termination of senior staff.,
A week later, on 8 August she issued an email to all staff under her signature and with the subject “Proposed change of operating structure”, proposing a new structure of four directorates, consolidated functions, and “the disestablishment” of City Development, City Lifestyles and City Futures. Clearly written by someone unfamiliar with HR practices and restructuring, the GM says “I have proposed a new structure for the organisation”. The word “proposal” and the advice that “Consultation has now commenced” made it clear this was happening, whether people liked it or not.
The Award establishes a “pre-proposal” period and a “proposal” period, with different requirements. Neither term was used to clarify how this workplace change would roll out and this put everyone on the back foot. We emailed the Council saying that we hadn’t been advised as we were required to under the Award, to receive a phone call from HR, valiantly putting to us that although not specified in the communication, it was intended to be a “pre-proposal”. With a proposal to follow…
Given that the proposal is the GM’s own, and that there are documents with organisation charts identifying what will be merged and things that might disappear, that seems odd. And it seems even more odd that in the slide showing the process, 14 October is a step identified as “Seek approval from CEO”.
And what all that means, is the CEO has designed her operational structure and is proposing it, there will be consultation and then the CEO will approve it! This only falls short of the abject stupidity at Hawkesbury last year, when a Director made a complaint against the behaviour of a member, investigated the complaint herself, and then found that it was not sustained!
We’ve been told by HR that even though it wasn’t said, it was intended to be a “pre-proposal” period, so we can all relax. It’s hard to relax when we know that there are documents already prepared, so we won’t.
The confusing email should be reissued, no one understands it, and it’s creating the sort of concern it suggests should be the subject of professional counselling, “if needed”!
The timing with the election, the apparent belief that this will be implemented by 4 November, will require a new Council - half the councillors are not seeking re-election which has significant implications for a change – to make a fundamental decision about the new structure, when they won’t have any idea about the current structure. The CEO must think she has a better hope with this Council, than the next one.
Yesterday a Notice of Motion was lodged for the next council meeting, “That the CEO be requested to withdraw any proposed changes and potential redundancies and hold the planned restructure of Directorates until after the New Council has been installed and consulted.”
Hear, hear!
