2004 Local Government (State) Award

Log of Claims

1 Abolish "term" contracts

This claim relates to the application for declaration currently before the Vice President of the Industrial Relations Commission. depa's claim is for there to be recognition that there is access to the Industrial Relations Commission whenever a term contract (but not a fixed term contract) is not renewed by a council and guidelines to be established to allow term employment only for projects or work of fixed duration.

2 Introduce paid parental leave

This claim from the 2001 Award discussions is revived to establish paid leave for the primary carer (regardless of whether the carer is the biological mother and regardless of gender) and paid leave for the support parent (regardless of gender) where the support parent is not the biological mother.

3 Determine issues arising from accreditation of council certifiers

An accreditation process for council employees who are certifying development is imminent. This will make this group of professional staff the only employees in the industry requiring continuing accreditation by a board of the NSW Government. Issues such as the following will need to be determined:

1. Recognition within salary systems or by way of an allowance in the Award for this unique level of scrutiny and increase in accountability and work value.
2. Recognition within the industry of the work that needs to be carried out to gain and retain accreditation.
3. Recognition within the industry of training that needs to be undertaken to gain and retain accreditation.
4. Payment of all costs associated with gaining and retaining accreditation. This includes accreditation fees, continuing training and associated costs.

4 Review and expand salary sacrifice options

Employees of the Department of Defence (and potentially other Federal public servants) have an arrangement where they can salary sacrifice to buy additional annual leave. This is the clause and we propose it or some variation to it:

"Employee purchased additional annual leave
Employees may purchase additional annual leave to a maximum of four weeks annual leave per annum. A purchase is made via a salary deduction from the employee's normal pay, where the cost of the number of hours purchased is based on the employee's salary applicable on the payday in which the deduction is made. The purchased annual leave is to be credited on the same payday as the salary deduction is made and is available for immediate use."

5 Resolve long service leave payout anomaly

In the 2001 Award we agreed to allow access to long service leave after five years. Clause 18D(vi) allows an employee transferring from one council to another "who at the time of transfer has completed at least ten years of continuous service may elect to be paid the monetary equivalent of the entitlement".

We propose the deletion of the ten years and its replacement with five years.

6 Review and increase on-call allowances

We have a number of members on-call for a variety of reasons - development control, noise complaints and measurement etc. Our members who are on-call for environmental duties receive less as an on-call allowance than comparable employees of the Environmental Protection Authority who may also attend the emergency. We will supply details of comparable employees in other industries.

7 Introduce some consequential and penalty provisions

1. If an employee remains in a temporary appointment for more than twelve months then the employee is permanently appointed to that position.
2. If a council fails to provide an annual review as required by the Award with four weeks of the review falling due, then the Council pays the employee a payment equivalent to 2% of the employee's salary.

8 Encourage broad-banding

This will allow more realistic progression through the grades that have been inserted within the Award levels.

9 Amend clause 14A

Paragraph (iv) needs to be amended to ensure that employees relieving in a senior staff position (which may not be in the salary system) receive "at least the minimum rate for that position" as required in 14A(iv) for positions within the salary system.

10 Appropriate salary increases

Annual increases to reflect comparable public sector movements. Our members are being seduced from local government to positions in DIPNR, EPA and the Department of Health. Comparable increases to those on the NSW Government need to be agreed to stop the losses.

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