Sophie to the rescue!
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- Published: Friday, 14 June 2024 12:15
There will no longer be “senior staff” under the Local Government Act and existing senior staff members will be able to request transition to the State Award, or Enterprise Agreement if their Council has one. When a request is made to transition to the Award or EA “Councils must not unreasonably refuse such a request.” If they do, the employee has access to Industrial Relations Commission to contest the Council’s decision.
No more section 340 of the Local Government Act preventing senior staff from contesting industrial matters or dismissal. What an astonishing transformation, long-awaited, significantly belated and all thanks to Sophie Cotsis, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Work Health and Safety after she took charge of something that had languished in the Minister for Local Government’s office for more than a year.
Then it all happened, a draft Bill was prepared by the Department of Industrial Relations and the Minister's office, consultation with the three unions and LGNSW, and on Wednesday 8 May, the Minister presented the Local Government Amendment (Employment Arrangements) Bill 2024 to the legislative assembly and made her second reading speech.
No wonder that the pic above shows a triumphant Minister and three equally triumphant local government union secretaries.
The second reading resumed on 15 May where the Opposition supported the proposal and it was passed through the Legislative Assembly, without dissent, then introduced into the Legislative Council on 15 May and passed, again without opposition or dissent. Everyone made speeches about the lessons of corruptibility and unfairness revealed by Operation Dasha into the former Canterbury in 2021 and endorsed the concept of fairness for senior staff as if this was the first time anyone had the opportunity to think about it.
It wasn’t of course - a number of them are former councillors who provided examples and assertions of unfairness that they’d witnessed but done nothing about at the time, nor after becoming a member of Parliament.
The NSW Governor assented to the bill on 31 May (another anachronism from our colonial past) and it is now law.
And everyone will have to comply, including the troglodyte opponents who have lost the right to sack good people without good reasons.
Thanks Sophie!
