City of Ballarat workers strike for pay rise

CITY of Ballarat workers who are members of the Australian Services Union took part in a strike out the front of Town Hall on Thursday Morning, calling for a pay increase.

The hour of protected industrial action by waste collection drivers, and office, road, early childhood, parking enforcement, parks and gardens, and gallery workers took place from 10.30am to 11.30am on Sturt Street.

City vehicles including rubbish trucks were in the street.

A statement from the ASU said many City of Ballarat workers have been taking industrial action over recent weeks, including during the major White Night event, because they have wanted pay parity with employees of comparable municipalities.

“Currently, for example, a worker at the City of Greater Geelong receives about $4000 more per year than a worker on the same band at the City of Ballarat,” the statement said.

“City of Ballarat management has rejected this claim and is attempting to push through a pay rise that will barely keep up with inflation.

“Over the last week and a half alone, ASU gallery workers and the street cleansing team have taken disruptive strike action during White Night, waste collection drivers went on a whole-day strike on Monday 3 June, and library workers went on strike and protested outside the renovated library’s official opening on Thursday 6 June.”

Art Gallery of Ballarat staffer Jordyn Smith said she and her colleagues “work for our community.”

“It’s vital that they, the public, know what is going on and how we are being treated,” she said.

“Council have saved $10.98 million dollars in the past three years by keeping us understaffed and overworked, and not a cent is being used or put aside to fund liveable wage increases for their staff.

“The money saved on us is being used to fund capital projects and pay for overrun spending. We love our jobs but we aren’t being valued by our employer.

“It’s offensive to us all having the CEO tell his staff that he ‘understands’ the cost of living crisis but is paid 7.5 times that of our lowest paid employees.

“The community need to be aware that it costs $1.4 million to service the top five paid employees at council, and yet they’re saying they would need to find an additional $1.3 million to give us the increase we are asking for in the first year for 1100 staff members.”

Ms Smith said taking industrial action isn’t an easy choice to make.

“We are trying to have council realise that we will no longer take their treatment of us as a body of workers anymore,” she said. “We deserve to be valued and paid accordingly by our employer; we don’t even receive weekend penalty rates.”

A City of Ballarat spokesperson said the municipality’s leadership acknowledge their employees have the right to take protected industrial action, and they are aiming to resolve the pay dispute.

“Management has finalised negotiations with relevant unions and delegates,” the spokesperson said. “We are now in the seven-day access period with the new Enterprise Agreement available for staff consideration.

“Voting will open on 19 June and close on 25 June 2024, with an outcome known on 26 June 2024.

“The wage increase in the proposed new Enterprise Agreement is a leading offer among local governments in Victoria. It is in the top 10 percent of all wage offers across the Victorian local government sector in year one, and it is the highest percentage increase of all local government wage offers negotiated to date for years two and three in 2024/25.

“It is important to understand that of the 1100 employees of the City of Ballarat only 205 are members of the ASU. Only ASU members are able to take protected industrial action.

“The City of Ballarat is working hard to minimise any disruption to residents.”

Ms Smith said the City’s offer to workers “fails to acknowledge that other Victorian councils haven’t commenced Enterprise Agreement negotiations yet, or are just starting, or that our last increases since 2016 have an average of 1.6 per cent per year.”

The statement from the ASU said parking enforcement workers who are members of the union have recently been issuing warnings to drivers instead of fines.