depa introduction

The Development and Environmental Professionals' Association (depa) is a trade union representing employees who work in local government administering a range of environmental and public health, building and development control and related legislation. Historically we began as the Health Inspectors Association and have regularly changed our name (Health Surveyors' Association, Health & Building Surveyors' Association , Environmental Health & Building Surveyor's Association and now, the Development and Environmental Professionals' Association ) to more properly describe the work our members do.

As an industrial organisation of employees registered under the Industrial Relations Act of NSW we provide services for employees who fit under our Constitution Rule. Essentially this means that we cover people administering health, building, sanitation, local government, environmental and building construction legislation.

As one of the trade unions operating in local government we provide a wide range of services to members - from negotiation of the Local Government (State) Award which covers almost 170 councils in New South Wales, specific Enterprise Agreements or Awards at those councils not covered by the State Award - Sydney, South Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Orange - to specific agreements effecting groups or individual development or environmental professionals workers at a council.

We specialise in providing individual advice and representation in a myriad of specific employment problems. We are a specialist organisation. For decades we have been solely focused on public health, environmental health and building and development regulation and our focus on this occupational group has allowed us to develop an expertise as a competent trade union, with a role in the development of the legislation that effects our members.

We had a high-level involvement in the development of the EPA Amendment Act 1997 - a piece of legislation so flawed in its fundamental stupidity - imagine letting developers buy their own certifiers - that we weren't surprised the government established the Campbell Inquiry in 2002. This Inquiry reviewed the stupidity of the part of intended to regulate private certifiers.

It was no surprise that our evidence to the Inquiry was preceded by the informal observation whether we had anything to say apart from "we told you so".

We have an expertise in what its like working in building and development control unrivalled by any other industrial organisation. This recognition has come most recently from the Planning Institute of Australia with whom we have agreed in principle to establish a closer relationship. We encourage our members (who are eligible) to join PIA and they encourage their members in councils to join us.

We have a Committee of Management of ten employees from across the industry - from both senior and more junior positions - qualified and specialising in all areas.

We have an unrivalled corporate memory - the current Secretary of depa, Ian Robertson, will have been the secretary for 24 years in May 2008. This means that we have been involved in everything of interest that has happened over that time (new local government legislation, new development control legislation etc.) and can provide advice on all these developments as they effect current situations. It's hard to think of anything interesting that has happened in local government over that time that we have not been involved in or have some knowledge about.

Local government is an extremely unpredictable industry. The political process can mean dramatic changes to Councils every four years and staff who have been faithfully working for a pro-development Council may find themselves working for an anti development Council or vice versa. Employees in development control are often at risk simply for doing the job properly - assessment of applications that attract objections will always leave an applicant or an objector with a grievance. We know staff in these areas can't make everyone happy and we know how to protect staff under attack.

Local Government, as the tier of government closest to the people, can also have its share of one-issue obsessives and mad people standing for election. Sometimes they get elected. Ignorance, stupidity, greed, and a lack of interpersonal skills are not barriers to standing for election at either local, state or national levels but it is in councils that employees find themselves most vulnerable.

Elected politicians can take a dislike to you for no better reason than you doing your job properly. There have been examples of councillors seeking election to get even with staff. Charming.

Incoming General Managers, often from outside local government and with no appreciation of how vulnerable employees can be working for Councils, may call for short term and dramatic changes where employees are concerned. Term contracts for employees, who are doing a job that will always be done by the councils, need to be opposed or have protections included in those contracts to ensure that they are renewed for employees with good records. Term contracts need to be opposed where they can be used to reduce an employee's right to the protections of permanent employment.

Short term agendas for four year councillors, short term agendas for General Managers whose contracts are limited to five years and short term agendas for the next level of management appointed by the General Manager can all create problems for professionals just interested in doing the job. Often, it's just not fair. That's where we can help.

depa is also represented on the Local Government Super Scheme with the Secretary as a Director on the Trustee Board. We were involved in the negotiation of the separation of local government employees from funds administered by the State Authority Super Board in 1996 and 1997 . With the establishment of the Local Government Superannuation Scheme from I July 1997 we now have a high degree of control over our own superannuation scheme.

In a five-year comparison of the performance of the LGSS Defined Benefit Scheme (Division B - the old SASS) with the State Authorities Superannuation Scheme (the one we separated from) the LGSS has outperformed SASS by around 2% each year.

We are one of the four unions party to the Local Government (State) Award. This means that we develop claims and negotiate them with the Local Government & Shires Association when the Award is renewed every three years. We provide our members with a say in this process and with a vote in accepting proposals from the Local Government & Shires Association for a new Award. As a party to the Local Government (State) Award we were instrumental in ensuring the establishment of Consultative Committees, requirements for the establishment of salary systems and the abolition of the old Awards and the multitude of 400 classifications and their replacement with thirteen levels in four bands.We were responsible for ensuring that the 2001 Award contained a commitment to "reasonable hours" and while we think paid maternity leave is a good thing - after all, we did claim it in the 80's with no support at the time from anyone else - we preferred paid parental leave. We couldn't talk anyone else into this but we will continue to agitate for parental leave. We think if you are the primary carer it doesn't matter whether you are a man or a woman. Paid parental leave should be available regardless of gender or sexual preference.We don't think it should only be women at home on paid leave looking after the kids - sounds a bit 1950's when you think about it.

We provide advice and assistance to members on car issues - how to get a car, how to keep a car and ensuring that lease-back agreements are fair and reasonable.

We provide advice and assistance to members on disciplinary matters. We will give advice, attend disciplinary interviews and make representations to councils defending our members. We will also give constructive advice to members at the time when they are genuinely at risk of dismissal or termination. If all this fails...

We run unfair dismissals for members. We have an expertise in these cases (we haven't lost one in the last twenty years) and we represent members before the Industrial Relations Commission to secure their reinstatement or negotiate a settlement if that is the member's choice. We can also use this provision of the Industrial Relations Act to prevent councils terminating employees who are in the process of being disciplined. We are also committed to properly resourcing serious cases of unfair dismissal - to the extent that we have created new law in the concept of "constructive dismissal". This where an employer forces an employee to resign by threatening them with termination, calling the police or in any other way. We believe all members deserve proper and full advice at this difficult stage of their lives.

We provide advice and assistance to members on the establishment of salary systems - how councils' should have had salary system that provides for skill based progression from November 1995 and how they should have had a system providing for annual reviews from November 1997. We act for members ensuring that the rules for progression are fair, that they are properly placed in the salary system, and that they progress. We filed a dispute in May 2000 with Parry Council (now Tamworth Regional) and 74 other councils, which were failing to comply with the Award. No one else was going to and the dispute needed to be properly managed. We did that, and many, many employees in the industry received payments. The dispute was finally settled in February 2003.

We provide advice and assistance on the establishment of performance management and performance reward systems.

We provide advice and assistance on how Consultative Committees should operate and provide assistance and support for our members who sit on consultative committees representing other members at that Council.

We continue to act against the creation of term contracts within the industry. We were the only union involved in lobbying the Government when the 1993 Act was established to try and reduce the impact of term contracts on Senior Staff. We were solely responsible for the 1994 Amendment Act, which lifted the minimum salary level before classifications could be designated as Senior Staff. This ensured that fewer members lost their industrial rights, access to Awards and tribunals of the industrial relations system, by being designated as Senior Staff.

We provide advice and assistance to Senior Staff and others on terms of their contracts (which clauses are good clauses and which clauses are bad) and we have acted on behalf of Senior Staff members in the mediation of breaches of contracts by employers.

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In 2002 we ran a dispute against Gosford Council when they wanted to introduce contracts for the manager level at salary levels as low as band three level three. The dispute resulted in the Council agreeing that an employee on a contract would have that contract renewed if the employee's performance had been satisfactory during the life of the contract. This removed the risk that good employees, working hard, could simply be "let go" by having the council refuse to offer another contract.We provide advice and assistance on issues which may involve defamation action against councillors, local papers/media, offensive or untrue comments. Advice is readily available and, when necessary, access to our lawyers is also available.

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We provide advice and assistance to members on issues relating to workplace change and redundancy. While the Award provides obligations for employees when decisions are made about changing the way work is done, these requirements are often not honoured by councils. We act to ensure that they are .We also provide advice to our members to ensure that they are properly protected in any work place change, that they are not redeployed into work which is not comparable to the work they were doing prior to the change and we pursue redundancy payments for those members who would rather take a redundancy than be redeployed.

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We provide advice and assistance to members on occupational health and safety issues. We have had a long history in doing this. Our smoke free environment campaign in the mid eighties resulted in all of local government providing smoke free offices. At Gosford in 1999 we had the WorkCover Authority issue orders for the Council to fix problems with the air-conditioning in their Administrative Centre and through a series of industrial disputes forced the council to spend more than $1 million to make their offices a better place to work. We acted at Lake Macquarie Council to force them to do the right thing about lead contamination levels in the ceiling space of their Administrative Centre. We can help in workplace health and safety issues whether they are to do with air quality, stress or any other issue.

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We provide advice and assistance to members on the introduction of family-friendly work provisions in Council and Enterprise Agreements. We are committed to ensuring employees have a life beyond that at work and have participated in successful claims for paid parental leave (Sydney and Wollongong Councils) as well as protecting flexible working hours to suit parental needs. While we didn't get our claim up for paid parental leave in the 2001 State Award, access to long service leave after five years (previously ten) was offered by the LGSA to get us to agree to withdraw our claim and let the Award be made. We did and everyone now benefits from long service leave after five years.

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We provide advice and assistance to members on any issue. Over recent years this has meant representing the interests of members on issues including:· Sick leave entitlements and protecting sick employees from unreasonable demands. · Access to annual leave and long service leave - acting for members to ensure that they get their entitlements. · Payment and time off for training - acting to make sure that members receive their entitlements to paid training leave under the Award. · Ensuring that members receive advice and assistance for periods of relief in higher positions. While there is an Award provision, which guarantees this, it is more often honoured in the breach than the observation.

We provide legal assistance to members through Maurice Blackburn. They carry out all our legal work and they provide the full range of legal services to members at "mates' rates." Details of their services are provided on this site.

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We also do some interesting things through representation on the Board of the Local Government Superannuation Board(LGSS). The Secretary is a Director on the LGSS Board and has been responsible for carrying our members concerns with the environment to the Board. For example, sustainability audits and remedial action to improve the sustainability of directly-held property. Also a new building constructed in North Ryde that will be the first SEDA five star energy building in that area - also winning a MBA award for energy efficiency. In 2001 we were involved with the decision to sell tobacco shares and in the development of an approach to sustainable investment that will not only protect returns but make the world a better place to be; ensuring that the LGSS Regional Development Trust only invested in projects with high environmental standards and sustainability; etc.