Almost too much news for one issue (and we had to leave some stuff out) - and our first ever apology  

BPB confirms no Council staff will be fined

One of the issues we have chased the BPB about is our continuing concern that there are a couple of areas where there is a discrepancy between what they say will happen with the accreditation of council employees and what we think the legislation obliges them to do.

of those is the vexed issue of their obligation under the Act to examine applications for accreditation which they tell us they will continue to discharge but, at the same time, will provide the individual accreditation levels consistent with the requests made by each council. We will see.

The other issue which we now have advice on, is the clarification of whether they will or whether they won't be fining councils and council employees. While BPB Chair Sue Holliday and CEO Neil Cocks told our representatives at our last meeting that there would be no fines on councils or council staff, it seemed to us that there needed to be some legislative change to facilitate this.

Neil has now written and asked that we circulate this information to members. The relevant extract from Neil’s e-mail is reproduced below and we are happy to do so:

“You are correct in your observation that there is no specific provision currently in the Building Professionals Act which prevents the Board from issuing fines on accredited council certifiers.

 This is because the Act amendments were drafted and gazetted sometime ago when it was contemplated that fines would apply in the same way that they apply to private certifiers. The Board subsequently resolved to change this position but could not make further Act changes without a cabinet minute, which would have significantly delayed commencement of the BP Act and Ready amendments. Instead, the Board resolved as an interim measure, not to issue fines on accredited council certifiers and more importantly, to prepare a Cabinet minute to seek an amendment to the Act to prevent the Board from issuing such fines or ordering compensation.

 It is proposed to commence these changes as soon as possible and before the 1 September 2010 start date for the requirement for councils to use accredited certifiers.”

and it looks like councils will get the levels of accreditation they ask for …

 The first council employee to be officially accredited by the Building Professionals Board is Bernie Wilder, the manager of environmental services at Burke Shire Council.

It was reported in the Local Government section of the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, April 6 in the following terms:

NSW Health starts to get their act together on Public Health Bill consultation

In the March depaNews we criticized NSW Health for the clumsy process of reviewing the Public Health Act. We were primarily concerned that while they claimed they wanted to provide "a stronger and more focused role for local government", thought it should do this by ignoring local government entirely in the "consultative" Phase - specifically by excluding the Strategic Liaison Group (a group established by them to foster better relationships with local government!).

Vice president Andrew Spooner (and President-elect, see election news below) is our representative on the Strategic Liaison Group and was disappointed that the Group, originally developed as a commitment to consult with local government on things like the Public Health Bill hadn't met since October 2008. Then suddenly, and without warning, and at considerable surprise to members of the Strategic Liaison Group, the Draft Bill appeared.

In response to a broadside of complaints from local government (including ours) NSW Health convened a meeting of the Strategic Liaison Group and other local government stakeholders on 24 March.

Andrew wonders what happened over the last five years because all it seems they have done is a basic cut-and-paste on the existing Act and Regulations. Even with five years of activity the task was incomplete as many operational matters (like skin penetration etc) were overlooked.

The only positive new initiative is section 4, which requires councils to appoint sufficient staff to exercise their public health responsibilities. It is anticipated that this will be strongly opposed by the LGSA on behalf of those councils more interested in not properly appointing staff to exercise their public health functions. Shame on them.

Make sure you mention how important the proposed section 4 is in ensuring local government discharges its responsibilities in your submission.

The Bill is a major disappointment. It fails to mandate a role for local government, fails to provide adequate enforcement tools, fails to provide adequate recovery mechanisms and minimum standards. And referring to Environmental Health Officers and the other modern titles as "public health inspectors" can only have been an idea developed by someone who has spent too much time watching films about time machines and travelling back to the past. Hardly modernising - and not even reflecting the recent past.

Submissions close on 19 April. Tell NSW Health how bad you think the Bill is and then take advantage of opportunities for verbal feedback when they roll out the regional workshops in May.

State Electoral Office declares new officials and a new Committee of Management

While the positions of President, Vice Presidents and Secretary/Treasurer were declared elected unopposed, there were insufficient nominations for the six vacant positions on the Committee of Management - two members who were enthusiastic about standing for election found they were simply unable to get their acts together sufficiently to do so. That is very disappointing but the Committee can run short.

The new Officers and Committee are:

Kerry Hunt chose to return to the Committee (or backbench as the mischievous group of members describe it) and we thank Kerry for her contribution as President over the last eight years.

Andrew has been a member of the Committee for many years and then Vice President for almost a decade. Congratulations, Andrew.

Jim Boyce was a Vice President of the previous Committee and he returns and Jamie Loader was a member of the Committee. Congratulations to you both and you, Jamie, for joining the executive.

Les and Paul were members of the previous Committee of Management and they are welcomed back.

Darren has been an active member of depa for many years and in the 1990s was a member of the Committee of Management and is our delegate and the Chair of the Consultative Committee at Pittwater. Welcome, Darren.

Award discussions take off

The LGSA and the three unions have met twice and dates have been set for conciliation in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission in the Commission in June and July.

Bullying, bastardry and belligerence at Bankstown (and that's only the b words)

Bankstown seems to oscillate between ignoring Award requirements and treating people poorly, a period of benign employment practices and then back to giving employees a bit of a kicking.

In 2005 depa prosecuted the Council in the Industrial Court for breaching the requirements in the Local Government (State) Award to provide annual reviews and progression based on skills etc in their salary system. The successful prosecution involving a political settlement imposed by the Council.

Things seem to improve for a while but sometime around the middle of March, the General Manager Luke Nicholls and the HR Manager Joanne Green met and decided that the Council would start enforcing their right under the Award to direct employees to take annual leave in excess of eight weeks.

Apparently this decision was taken without being minuted or recorded in any way. Whatever happened, it wasn't referred to the Consultative Committee for their feedback, it wasn't advised to staff, nor was it sent to the unions.

Because staff were not involved, the first we knew of it was when a member of ours on Thursday 25 March, about to head off on leave at the end of the following day for four weeks, received a direction that she remain on leave for a further 9 1/2 weeks! While the Award allows this to occur with four weeks notice, no one ever contemplated that the four-week notice obligation can be satisfactorily discharged by giving notice when someone is on leave. If you’re out of the country for four weeks, how do you make plans to use your leave after that effectively?

We protested and the 13 other employees of the council who received a direction the following day received an amended letter with some option to make the leave more convenient but one of them was directed to take six months! How would you like to go home at the end of the day and tell your wife/husband/partner that you have to take six months leave in four weeks time?

So, we filed a dispute calling for the withdrawal of the direction to our member to remain on leave and requiring the Council to provide us with a copy of whatever decision was taken to introduce this new policy/practice.

Following proceedings in the Industrial Relations Commission on 9 April, the Commission issued the following recommendation:

The procedure is quite clear, "all leave, except for Sick Leave/Carer’s Leave and Bereavement Leave are required to be taken at a mutually convenient time."

How stupid are these people? The policy already exists and yet the GM and the HR Manager think they can change it, without reference to anyone, and without telling anyone what the new policy is!

As this issue of depaNews is published, the Council has still not made a decision about how they will respond to the three parts of the Commission's recommendation. How can they reject any of them? It only compounds the stupidity of the original decision.

TAFE needs Casual Trainers/Assessors for the Diploma Local Government (Environmental Health and Building)

TAFE NSW is seeking suitably qualified trainers and the seesaws of the Diploma Local Government (Environment Health and Building).

Minimum qualifications would be a Degree or Diploma with specialisation in Environmental Health, Building Assessment, Building Surveying and/or statutory planning assessment or equivalent. Industry experience is a minimum three (3) years in a given area. Candidates should ideally also hold a TAA4 (Certificate IV Workplace Training & Assessment (or indicate a willingness to obtain one.

Successful candidates will be employed on a casual basis with TAFE NSW (Sydney Institute). For further details please contact:

Luke Tuffy
Head Teacher Business Services
St George College TAFE
Ph 9598 6334
Fax 9598 6351
luke.tuffy@det.nsw.gov.au

And don't forget, if you are contemplating this as another job, your obligations under section 353 of the Local Government Act.

Does it get any better than playing golf on a perfect day, celebrating Union Picnic Day, at the depa Golf Day at Blackheath?

Not for those 100 or so members who attended the Union Picnic Day Golf Day on 12 March - and certainly not from those four members from Leichhardt Council, calling themselves the Leichhardt Lurkers who triumphed on the day. Team members Eamon Egan, David Minty, Adrian Moore and Dwayne Roberts could not have been more proud - nor surprised.

The Winners  

The results for all teams appear below:

• Leichhardt 52.5
• North Sydney 53
• Shoalhaven 2 54.2
• Robbo's Team 54.25
• Blue Mountains 1 54.62
• Campbelltown 54.87
• The Hills 1 55.12
• Bankstown 2 55.25
• Warringah 55.5
• Shoalhaven 1 55.75
• Bankstown 1 57.37
• Liverpool 57.5
• Lithgow 58.25
• Canterbury 59.62
• Parramatta 60.17
• The Hills 2 60.5
• Blue Mountains 2 62.5
• Parramatta 2 62.5
• LGSA 65.5

Apology to Beverley Giegerl and Richard Powis

We refer to an article in issue 17 of depaNews on 1 March 2010 under the title "A Rat in the Ranks". We acknowledge that readers may have drawn inferences unfavourable to Beverley Giegerl and Richard Powis in the context of the functions of the LGS Board and FuturePlus.

We acknowledge that what had been intended as merely irreverent commentary could have been seen as an attack on Beverley and Richard's reputations and could have been hurtful to them. We unreservedly withdraw the offending statements and apologise to Beverley and Richard for any hurt that may have been occasioned to them by the article.

Ian Robertson

Secretary