Senior staff jobs go in amalgamations and the hero is Viv the Vivisector

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Published: Tuesday, 21 June 2016 14:23

Viv the Vivisector

It all hit the fan on Thursday 12 May when the NSW Government by proclamation amalgamated 42 councils into 19 new local government areas. The proclamations included the appointment of administrators to be the Council until election in September 2017, interim General Managers and, depending on how many GMs of the existing councils remained standing, one or more deputy GMs to provide certainty and continuity of their employment.

There had been a consensus view amongst the three unions and LGNSW that there needed to be some form of protection provided to senior staff beyond the 38 weeks’ payout under the standard contract. The Government, through the Office of Local Government and Department of Premier and Cabinet, was also working with the parties to the Award to provide comfort to local government employees at the time of high uncertainty and dramatic change. It was all about happiness generation and protecting morale.

So, when the new Cumberland Council Administrator Viv May met with a displaced Auburn GM and an undisplaced Auburn Deputy GM on the morning after the proclamation, he revealed quickly and dramatically that being named as a Deputy GM in the proclamation provided no certainty or continuity, and those contracts were terminated that day.

(In the interests of full disclosure, the Administrator’s evidence before the Auburn Public Inquiry stated that while he terminated the employment of the Auburn GM, he did so “at his request”.)

But the Deputy GM hadn’t asked to be sacked and, the current tally of senior staff gone is five. It’s not so much the number (because Georges River has seen off one GM, three directors and one IT Manager and Inner West has seen off two GMs, three directors and one other Director position temporarily filled) but the unseemly speed with which it all happened in an environment the Government was carefully constructing to avoid frightening the horses.

In all the amalgamations, those staff who watched their GM disappear felt the loss - and it didn’t matter whether it happened fast or in some sort of agreed way over time. It is reasonable to say that the removal of some much-loved GMs, and some much-respected GMs, poisons the water from which all other employees drink.

But you have to hand it to Viv. The Vivisector started spilling blood before the proclamation was even 24 hours old and provided a role for us to get the DLG to intervene and at least reference in the termination letters a regulation scheduled for the following week that ensures the termination payment is a redundancy, but not quite the “bloodbath” with the unions the Vivisector was hoping for.

Interim GM Merv Ismay, ex-GM of Holroyd (both much-loved and much-respected) decided that it was a pretty good time to take his retirement and Cumberland is the first Council, within a month of the proclamation, to have appointed a second interim GM. The quinella - the first sackings the first interim GM pulling the pin.

Viv has always been a polarising person. As GM at Mosman he was inspired on a managerial study tour to the UK in 1980 by the Thatcherite model. He came back to Australia enthused about the joys of privatisation and contracting out and successfully contracted out all of Mosman Council’s outdoor staff. A model that the employees of Cumberland are well-aware of and, were it not for their three years’ protection, would be a real prospect.

Employment Matters Working Party clarifies the protections under the Act

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Published: Tuesday, 21 June 2016 14:23

The Employment Matters Working Party, comprising the DPC, OLG, LGNSW, USU, LGEA and depa, meets every fortnight to allow the Government to consult with those with the expertise in employment in local government, and to inform the Government using that collective expertise developed over more than two decades of cooperative employment relationships.

The OLG provides weekly FAQs to new councils through the Stronger Council’s website. There were plenty of bizarre anti-employee interpretations of the employment protections under the Act (yes, many of you lot in HR) and the FAQs have now included clarification and certainty with the agreed consensus wording:

Do the employment protections prescribed under the Local Government Act 1993 for staff affected by mergers apply to individuals or the positions they hold?

An Employment Matters Reference Group has been established to advise the Chief Executive of the Office of Local Government on matters impacting on the statutory and policy framework governing employment by councils, including any issues arising from merger implementation. Membership of the group includes Local Government NSW, the United Services Union, the Local Government Engineers Association of NSW and the Development and Environmental Professionals’ Association.   Advice by the Group is provided to the Chief Executive with the consensus of all members of the Group.

The consensus view of the Group is that the protections conferred on staff of councils affected by mergers or boundary alterations under the Local Government Act 1993 apply to individual staff members and not to the position they hold. This means that irrespective of the position they hold at the time of a merger or boundary alteration or subsequently hold in a new council, non-senior staff:

• cannot be made redundant without their agreement as a result of the transfer for three years following the merger or boundary alteration  
• must continue to be employed under the same terms and conditions unless they voluntarily consent to the alteration of their terms and conditions  
• cannot be transferred to a work base outside the former council’s local government area unless:
  • they give their written consent to the transfer, or  
  • the transfer would not cause them to suffer unreasonable hardship because of the distance they would be required to travel to their new work base.

See how much progress is made when the dilettantes and dabblers at LGPA recognise that they’re not experts in industrial matters and leave it those who are?

Not so fast, the dilettantes and dabblers are still at it

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Published: Tuesday, 21 June 2016 14:23

Just when you thought you were was safe from Dorothy, the cowardly Lion, the heartless Tin Man and the brainless Scarecrow, LGPA has provided some misleading advice to the industry in marketing their LG Forum on Council Mergers on 30 June. This lot had abandoned giving advice to senior staff on employment issues in amalgamations with advice from President Barry Smyth that if senior staff are members of the three unions, that’s where the advice should come from, because LGPA is not an industrial organisation.

But the marketing of the Forum includes a workshop called “Bringing Two Salary Systems Together” run by some bloke called Bob Davidson, claimed to be an “EBA Specialist”. No one I’ve spoken to has any idea who this bloke is, and if you go Google or go to LinkedIn, he can either be a finance professional, an itinerant labourer or potentially a consultant at Davidson Workplace Solutions. And if you Google Davidson Workplace Solutions you find someone called Rob Davidson, who, from his brief profile is apparently a man.

So, why would LGPA think it made sense to wheel in a bloke, and we mean a bloke, and describe him as an “EBA Specialist”, when an EBA is something that happens under the Fair Work Act and has nothing to do with local government in New South Wales? Is it because I have no idea what they’re talking about?

The most important thing about deciding what to do about salary Systems in each Council, is to involve the unions.

So, the unions collectively wrote to the councils (although the Interim GM of the Council on the link is too smart to fall for this LGPA stunt) who received this marketing guff and pointing out, amongst other things, that “if the Council wants that advice, it should get it from LGNSW.” Not some anonymous person, who could be either Bob or Rob, or both, with an expertise in the Federal System, which is not even mentioned on the website of Davidson Workplace Solutions.

Food Regulation Forum

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Published: Tuesday, 21 June 2016 14:23

We’ve had a fluctuating relationship with the Food Authority over the years. We’ve criticised them for a lack of consultation; warmed to them when they committed to try harder; complained about bullying a new representative of ours on the Forum; allowed them to review how the Forum has been operating in having past and present representatives interviewed by the consultant after accepting that some things could be handled more sensitively, and now we have relatively high expectations for the future.

Even more so, when they call a meeting of the Forum to start at 1pm, for example, then they shouldn’t ask a few people if they’re happy to meet earlier, not ask some others, and then meet earlier.

depa has two representatives on the Food Regulation Forum and we have had two representatives since the days of our complaints about the lack of consultation and the Authority and NSW Health committed to properly consult with local government.

The Food Regulation Forum should be all about proper consultation with local government and the purpose of this note in depaNews is to remind EHOs with an interest in what goes on at the Forum that our two representatives are Julie Kisa, an EHO from Inner West Council (ex Marrickville) and Corey Stoneham, Manager - Environment and Health at Camden Council.

Both are relatively new representatives and are enthusiastic to hear from EHOs and other members with any operational or relationship issues arising from the Food Regulation Partnership in place between the Authority and Councils.

Julie and Corey he would be delighted to hear from you and to raise issues on your behalf. You can contact them on and .

You’d have to be a mug not to join

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Published: Thursday, 12 May 2016 15:22

At 12:30 today, the NSW Government by proclamation created 19 new councils. Merger proposals for Kiama and Shoalhaven, Tamworth and Walcha, and Hawkesbury and the Hills are not proceeding. Everything else is happening, or happening pending decisions of courts or alternative proposals being considered.

This is a very, very bad time for employees in the industry not to be represented by a union. This is a very, very bad time for members of ours at councils without a delegate (you can check our website for details of whether you have a delegate) and members at those councils need to get their fingers out and get one ASAP.

As foreshadowed in the email to all members earlier today, at 11:30 the Employment Matters Working Party met at OLG but the business was focused on developments in Parliament House, and to the extent that anything useful could be considered, it was all embargoed until 12:30 when the Premier addressed a media conference.

19 new councils were created effective at 12:30 and such was the pace of this process that no one in OLG can actually tell you how many councils have been severed, or removed entirely, for this to happen.

The Government’s proclamation transfers all staff across to the new council whether they be senior staff and otherwise, appoints an interim general manager, appoints any unsuccessful general manager from the constituent councils as a deputy general manager (note, not interim), appoints a single administrator, protects current wards if they exist etc.

The 29 page proclamation for all those newly constituted councils and the 15 page proclamation affecting the City of Parramatta and Cumberland, and all relevant media releases and other documents are available on www.strongercouncils.nsw.gov.au

Full details of the 75 councils affected by this process follows.

Formation of new councils:

• Armidale Regional Council (Armidale Duraresq and Guyra)
• Canterbury-Bankstown Council (Bankstown and Canterbury)
• Central Coast Council (Gosford and Wyong)
• City of Parramatta Council (P’matta and part of The Hills, Auburn, Holroyd and Hornsby)
• Cumberland Council (Auburn and Holroyd)
• Edward River Council (Conargo and Deniliquin)
• Federation Council (Corowa and Urana)
• Georges River Council (Hurstville and Kogarah)
• Gundagai Council (Cootamundra and Gundagai)
• Hilltops Council (Boorowa, Harden and Young)
• Inner West Council (Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville)
• Mid-Coast Council (Gloucester, Great Lakes and Greater Taree)
• Murray River Council (Murray and Wakool)
• Murrumbidgee Council (Jerilderie and Murrumbidgee)
• Northern Beaches Council (Manly, Pittwater and Warringah)
• Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (Queanbeyan and Palerang)
• Snowy Monaro Regional Council (Bombala, Cooma Monaro and Snowy River)
• Snowy Valleys Council (Tumut and Tumbarumba)
• Western Plains Regional Council (Dubbo and Wellington)

Subject to the decisions of the courts, in principle support for the following mergers:

• Botany and Rockdale
• Randwick, Waverley and Woollahra
• Bathurst and Oberon
• Ku-ring-gai and Hornsby
• Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby
• Blayney, Cabonne and Orange
• Shellharbour and Wollongong
• Hunters Hill, Lane Cove and Ryde
• Burwood, Canada Bay and Strathfield

Amalgamations pending examination and report of alternative proposals:

• Newcastle and Port Stephens
• Dungog and Maitland

Mergers not proceeding:

• Kiama and Shoalhaven
• Tamworth and Walcha
• Hawkesbury and The Hills

Hold on tight, it’s going to be quite a ride.

Do the right thing by your workmates

If you want to look after your workmates who could be members of ours but aren’t, forward this and they can use this link http://depa.net.au/why-join/join-now-form.html

Not a member, but would like to be?

You can join depa using this link http://depa.net.au/why-join/join-now-form.html. In addition to the obvious benefits of industrial representation and protection, we always send new members a beautiful depa mug.

What’s next?

Immediate concerns can be addressed on the Government website and we will continue to keep you in touch as things develop.

What is the Employment Matters Working Party?

This is the consultative mechanism established by the Government through the Office of Local Government to consult with the three unions and LGNSW on the employment implications that arise from the amalgamations. While nothing really could be dealt with today while we waited for the Premier’s announcements at the Media Conference, the Working Party did adopt Terms of Reference to regulate their activity over the next months.

You can see the Terms of Reference here. Members should draw comfort from the existence of this Working Party and our critical role as a member.

NSW Government announces broad expansion of exempt and complying development

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Published: Friday, 01 April 2016 00:05

NSW Premier Mike Baird today announced measures that expand exempt and complying development and remove local government entirely from the planning process - leaving only a minor administrative and compliance role.

“Barangaroo is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us,” the Premier said at a joint Urban Taskforce/Urban Development Institute breakfast overlooking the development site. “This is a site that has been neglected for centuries, satisfied maritime and mercantile needs for a growing city but is now ready for us to do something which is typically New South Wales and, more importantly, typically Sydney,” the Premier continued.

“For more than two decades both sides of politics in New South Wales have embraced a symbiotic relationship with the development industry. Governments have done what they can to get the regulators out of the way and leave it to the people who know best. Craig Knowles and Bob Carr were visionaries and we build on that vision today.

“All the great cities of the world have had visionaries given a clean sheet. Look at Paris, it would have been a crap city without the dramatic reconstruction initiated by another great political leader Emperor Napoleon the Third, and put in the hands of a bloke called Haussmann in the middle of the 19th century. It’s time to get rid of our equivalent of the peasant and low-life slums and let another Emperor reveal his vision.

“If there’s one thing I learned in my career in finance, it’s that rich people are rich for good reason. They know what they’re doing and while it sometimes looks like they are doing it for their own self-interest, they’ve earned that right and the benefits trickle down to all of us.

“I would like to acknowledge the Packer dynasty, our own nobility who, even today, properly treat the rest of us like serfs. If it wasn’t for the venerable Mr James Packer telling us that he would pull the pin on his magnificent gaming building if he didn’t get his own way, I would not have had the epiphany, the blinding light on the road to Damascus, as I have had and which I will deliver to the people of NSW.

“The government will establish a new planning authority for Greater Sydney, overriding all local government boundaries, and limited only by the Great Dividing Range and the Queensland and Victorian borders. This new authority will simply be called the AJW - an abbreviation I like for “Anything James Wants”. The private sector will staff it, develop policy and have unfettered access to our foreshores to create something to make us proud. I will appoint the inestimable Chris Johnson, former NSW Government Architect and luminary who can do the job and still remain CEO of the Urban Taskforce. That will make things much more efficient.

“I know that the proposals by Mr Packer have been regarded as alienating the public from public land, but that’s just a petty complaint from the jealous and less worthy. I have no problem with phallic construction, because after all, I have a phallus and I’m surrounded by other people who do as well. The Honourable and venerable Mr Packer should build the biggest he can get his hands on and make it a real monument to his vision, personal taste and his dynasty.

“I can see a giant Mariah Carey, straddling the North and South Heads, our equivalent of the Colossus of Rhodes, and what a striking entrance to our beautiful city and the paradise beyond. Emperor Packer tells me he wants to share a glimpse of heaven, as we all sail through the heads.

“Now it’s time for the tasteless, ignorant and poor people of Sydney to get out of the way.”

The Premier’s announcement was greeted with horror by Sydneysiders but welcomed by the UDIA and the Urban Task force. Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson said “it’s about bloody time we got the community out of planning and put local government back in its correct place, keeping out of the way of those of us who want to build a modern city. No more section 94 arguments for us developers, there won’t be a section 94.”

Happy birthday, Mike

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Published: Thursday, 31 March 2016 12:35

It really is Mike Baird’s birthday today. We hope he has a great day and doesn’t get too much teasing. Must have been hell with the bullies at the Kings School.

2016 depa elections delivers four new brooms

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Published: Thursday, 24 March 2016 12:49

Four vacancies to be filled and four exciting new candidates elected today. Nominations closed at midday and the NSW Electoral Commission has confirmed that we have the right number of candidates for the right number of positions. Nice.

There are ten positions on the Committee of Management. One President, two Vice Presidents, six Committee Members and the Secretary. The Secretary has a four-year term, so is not up for election this year, and the five current members of the Committee who renominated have been declared elected.

While a new broom sweeps clean, an old broom knows the dirty corners best. (Gee, it’s hard to go past a couple of great ancient sayings/proverbs/platitudes.) So six existing old brooms and four new brooms are a great combination.

President Andrew Spooner has been re-elected. Andrew has been a member of the Committee for close to 20 years and President for the last four. He is the Sustainable City and Environment Manager at Campbelltown City Council.

Jo Doheny and Jamie Loader have been re-elected as Vice Presidents. Both are also long-standing members of the Committee and Vice Presidents with a long history of commitment as delegates- Jo at Gosford and Jamie from the bush and at Parramatta. Jo is Senior Landuse Planner at Gosford and Jamie is Manager Building Certification at Wyong.

Joanne Dunkerley has been a member of the Committee for the past four years and is now an Urban Planner at Newcastle after leaving Great Lakes last year. Joanne is re-elected. Also re-elected is Vince Galletto. This will be Vince’s second term on the Committee of Management and he is the Team Leader - Building and Development Advisory Service at Ryde.

That’s the old brooms out of the way. The four new brooms, in alphabetical order, are:

Steven Cook

Steven is a Senior Planner at Wagga Wagga City Council and has been our delegate since 2008, when he was our only member. He recruited vigorously (we now have 16 members) and he was our delegate during The Troubles of 2010 and 2011 which, amongst other things, involved some bans, had the Council forced by the IRC into calling for an apology from that boofhead Peter Hurst and among a number of recommendations to resolve the problems, delivered a recommendation from IRC Deputy President Grayson that the Council had an obligation as part of its duty of care to protect the professional reputations of staff. Nice precedent.

Steven had surgery for cancer in 2013 and 2014, our August 2014 issue carried the story of then GM Phil Pinyon (suspended and resigned last year) and director Andrew Crackenthorp (currently suspended) refusing to provide additional sick leave. Steven has survived cancer and working for both Phil and Andrew, and will bring a real resilience to the Committee.

Renah Givney

Renah is a planner employed as a Senior Assessment Officer at Coffs Harbour City Council, where she has worked since 2007. Renah has been our delegate at Coffs Harbour City Council since 2014 and has been our delegate during the long-running, complicated and seemingly interminable dispute arising from their restructure (which earned Coffs our nomination in our 2015 HR awards) and courageously supported a member to file a grievance against a bullying misogynist. A real asset to the Committee.

Brendan Hayes

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Brendan has been a depa stalwart everywhere he has worked - in both metropolitan and country councils. He has been our delegate, representative on consultative committees and Chair of a Consultative Committee too. He is a foundation and active member of EDAP, the most successful surviving regional representative of the professions involved in development and environmental control. Brendan is the Director Environmental Services at Weddin Shire, which has its centre at Grenfell in the State’s south west. A jewel in the crown of the Western wedge of the state and a timely representative for a very, very big region.

Michael Middleton

Michael is the Health Team Leader at Penrith City Council and was an active and capable delegate for us at Holroyd before he moved to Penrith last year. He is acting as a co-delegate at Penrith and will bring a measured mind and enthusiasm to that job as well as the Committee. Michael will be our second representative for Greater Sydney - assuming that Penrith and Campbelltown are part of greater Sydney.

Congratulations to the four new members of the Committee. You can read the policy statements of the ten candidates here.

The new Committee takes office from 1 May and will first meet in our annual strategic planning conference on 9 and 10 May. It will be an exciting year for everyone.

PIA NSW did what?

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Published: Thursday, 24 March 2016 10:15

Wow, that’s a headline you don’t see very often. Largely imperceptible, PIA NSW has historically provided representation consistent with the majority of their board members - a majority from the private sector and a couple of local government people tossed in for appearances - as they have restrained themselves to professional education, training and running a conference.

The last time we mentioned PIA NSW was when we thought it was largely moribund and lamented its failure to properly represent the interests of planners and those involved in development control in local government with their support for broader exempt and complying development. You know, employment generation for the private sector.

But, just when you thought we had all got over LGPA misrepresenting itself as an organisation with some expertise in looking after employees at work, PIA NSW has crashed into the vacuum created by their tactical withdrawal with some broad assertions about their capacity and interest to represent planners in the workplace.

Historically, depa has had a relationship with PIA NSW’s Local Government Network which began more than a decade ago when we signed an agreement with people in the LG Network that we would support each other - specifically, PIA would encourage their members to join depa and depa would encourage its members to join PIA.

It goes without saying that this was an arrangement that advantaged PIA more than it provided a benefit to us.

Around that time PIA NSW commissioned Sue Holliday to do a report on the toxic workplace of planners in local government. Fair enough, but in the end, so what? I can remember a PIA NSW conference at Wollongong where Sue and I conducted a session (chaired by Graham Gardener) about the toxic workplace and Graham asked for a show of hands of who was a member of PIA and who was a member of depa. If our members outnumbered those of PIA NSW tenfold, it would be an understatement. Virtually everyone was a member of ours, a handful were a member of PIA NSW and some of them were members of both. A couple were members of PIA NSW and not ours. Not ours yet, anyway.

PIA NSW had no capacity at all to do anything about the workplace, toxic or otherwise, and if anyone was going to do anything about it at all, it would be us. And, as you be aware, that’s precisely what we’ve done over the last decade or so - more than 10 years of industrial action and bans on miscreants in the industry attacking our members of the toxic workplace, culminating in our section 106 against the grumpy old bastards (and potentially crooks, depending on what the ICAC does with the current investigation) at Mid-Western.

You can check out how we responded in our May 2006 issue.

But last week, the new PIA NSW President, Marjorie Ferguson (ex-Canada Bay and a member of ours at the time) wrote to the general managers at all councils in New South Wales under the heading “NSW Boundaries Review”, asking that they pass on her correspondence to planners who work for them. She made a number of observations about PIA’s role which we believe to be presumptuous and misrepresentations. For example:

• Support planners in terms of professional, career and personal circumstances as a consequence of workplace changes,
• Advocate and provide support for the crucial role that planners can and should take on the change management processes, and
• Provide information services to support planners’ understanding of the implications of new structures, positions etc. (The bold is our emphasis.)

We responded. Here is their letter and ours. You will see that our letter invited Marjorie to phone and talk to us with a request that she clarify to the same general managers that the workplace was our area and that there was no intention in her letter to suggest otherwise.

She did ring us to suggest that we were “old-fashioned”, “paranoid” and that it was a “free world” and that meant she could write whatever she liked and, when it was suggested that if she didn’t clarify things we would, because it was a “free world”, we could do that.

We reminded her on Tuesday this week that we did have a deadline to advise our members and she has chosen not to respond. So, it being a free world and all, we’re happy to call them clumsy in their communication, irrelevant to workplace employment issues and their letter has irritated more than it has drawn support.

Even a general manager has felt obliged to respond, telling them that he thought the employment stuff was depa and other industrial organisations and he’s been a general manager for 10 years and “where have you been all these years that I’ve been general manager at The Hills Shire Council?”

Well Marjorie, free world and all, what are you going to do about that?

Some great news for Catherine

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Published: Tuesday, 08 March 2016 13:59

Old bastards at Mid-Western

Catherine Van Laeren was highly regarded as a planner in local government until her unfair and political removal from Mid-Western. Mid-Western Regional Council, of course, remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by the ICAC.

We ran a section 106 for Catherine, confidentially settled it, and are delighted that since her departure from Mid-Western she has shot through the stratosphere.

Her professionalism as a planner, her capacity as a manager and director, and her vision for the future (qualities not appreciated by the majority group of councillors at Mid-Western) were initially recognised with employment at the Planning Assessment Commission and, more importantly, Catherine has now been appointed as the Director of Sydney Region West for the Department of Planning and Environment. Woohoo, go Catherine!

Those unpleasant old bastards at Mid-Western must be so, so humiliated.