GAWLER Council staff have resoundingly voted no to a wage freeze as part of ongoing enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations, sending a “clear message” to CEO Henry Inat.
Earlier this week, Mr Inat discredited an Australian Services Union (ASU) staff survey that
claimed EA negotiations were
causing feelings of “worthlessness”, “intimidation” and “frustration” among employees.
Despite the CEO dismissing the survey as a “union ploy”, 76 per cent of staff yesterday voted no to the agreement.
“Town of Gawler staff have sent a clear message to their CEO that he needs to offer them a fair pay rise and end this saga. This has been dragging on for too long,” ASU secretary Abbie Spencer told
The Bunyip.
“Workers have told us that a fair pay rise matters more than ever, as many are now supporting family members who have lost work because of
COVID-19.
“A wage freeze is unnecessary and short-sighted and will only take money out of the local economy, at a time when it is needed the most.”

Council has been in talks over a new EA with the ASU since March, 2019, with employees yesterday rejecting a revised proposal that included a 2 per cent pay rise back-dated to July 2019, and a pay freeze in 20/21. The voting process was stalled in March this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 59 responses to the ASU survey indicated most people were “unhappy” with the proposed offer.
However, Mr Inat slammed the survey as having “zero credibility”.
“Nobody can say who accessed the survey link or if they even work at council,” he said.
“It does not reflect the reality of our council and the hard work so many people do every day that is highly valued by myself and the Gawler community.”
Ms Spencer said Gawler Council employees were among the lowest paid local government staff in South Australian metropolitan and outer-metropolitan councils.
However, Mr Inat said the new offer reflected the current economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.
“The new COVID-19 employment agreement is not as financially attractive as those rejected last year of which provided for increases aligned to CPI,” he said.
“It deals with the new landscape that confronts us all. It is designed to maximise workplace security, avoid job losses and maintain vital services that are affordable for a community doing it tough.
“It contains flexibility provisions to enable council to redeploy staff or, as a last resort, stand down employees.”
When asked how Mr Inat’s approach to pay negotiations made them feel – as part of the ASU survey – staff anonymously said they felt “unworthy”, “disappointed”, “demotivated” and “underappreciated”, with one feeling pressure to take the wage freeze and another
planning to update their resume and find other work.
Allegations of in-house bullying are also mentioned among the survey responses.
However, Mr Inat said council insists on a “safe workplace for all employees”.
“Council does not tolerate any form of workplace bullying, intimidation or harassment,” he said.
“Council has clear safe work policies and avenues for employees to report and resolve concerns.”
Meanwhile, Member for Light Tony Piccolo expressed concerns with council’s EA negotiation process.
“While EBA (enterprise bargaining agreement) negotiations can give rise to uncertainty and passion, the depth of feeling expressed in the survey responses are very troubling,”
he said.
“The opinions expressed appear to reflect a council that is in turmoil and not delivering the outcomes for the community that it should.
“I understand that the current EBA expired two years ago and staff have received no pay increase for at least 18 months. As a matter of fairness and equity, council should ensure its staff be treated with respect and dignity and the current EBA process does not appear to do
that.”
Mr Piccolo urged council not to discredit the union survey.
“If the process has gone off track and treated staff badly, the CEO is their agent, but council can’t wash its hands of the whole process,” he said.
“The survey responses represent the canary in the mine, and now it is up to the council to take note and reconsider their position.
“While I pray that the council is wise enough to swallow some pride and do the right thing by the staff and community, I am not hopeful based on recent decisions it has made.”

Some Gawler staff survey responses

Q3 How does the CEO’s approach to this enterprise agreement negotiation make you feel?

“I just feel so frustrated. We don’t seem to be getting anywhere and management keep coming up with excuses for reasons as to why we shouldn’t get a pay rise/back pay, but if they had of presented a better offer to start with, we wouldn’t be in this position.
• “Generally, it feels as though the process has been unnecessarily adversarial. It seems to be creating a great deal of worry, tension and negative feelings. It would be good to have the EB resolved soon.
• “I find this question very antagonistic... While I am disappointed with the whole process, I think we need to move on and put this behind us.
• “Pushed up against a wall. Threat of no back-pay, with strict deadline is almost bullying.
Clauses added - COVID - for what... isn’t this able to be done anyway (leave it out of the EB).
• “Undervalued, treated like a number not a person, disrespected, lack of trust in management now, silly games need to stop it’s not an ego competition its peoples livelihoods, morale and mental state in question.
• “I am unsure if I support as we deserve both back pay and a pay increase. It is so disappointing for our working group and union to have to fight so long and hard for an increase for employees which is not much over the normal CPI. It shouldn’t have been so difficult and it makes me feel so undervalued and our working environment is not the happy place it used to be.
• “Like a pawn in a game. Worthless. Powerless.