Bulletin #1, May 2003

We are depa - and here is another chance to win $500!

This is the first Industrial Bulletin published as depa. The variety of things that needed to be done to establish the name change from ehabsa all took place in February to allow depa to commence operating, as planned, on 3 March.

One of the first things that depa did, in a moving ceremony at Wingecarribee Council, was to give Peter Mitchell his $500 for coming up with the name. This happened on 3 March after a morning tea and meeting of members at Wingecarribee .

We publish the photo so that you know we really did give the prize of $500 (cash too - this was a real prize!) and that Peter actually got it.

The photo was taken outside Wingecarribee Council and we apologise if any residents at Wingecarribee misunderstood the ceremony as a demonstration of the appropriate way to file a development application.

Win a bottle of wine and maybe, win another $500

Local government being what it is, there are few chances of getting nice cash bonuses. This must explain the unprecedented response of members to the $500 we offered for anyone who could come up with a new name.

The depa Committee of Management has resolved to encourage a serious recruitment campaign for the remainder of 2003.

This campaign will build on the Strategic Alliance now signed between the Planning Institute of Australia Local Government Network and depa. More of that later.

While we have had a recent surge in membership, we know that there are hundreds of po tential members still to be recruited.

It is anticipated that the Strategic Alliance will provide some assistance, there is nothing like active delegates and members in the workplace encouraging other employees to join.

For the remainder of 2003 we will provide prizes with an ultimate $500 prize to the most successful recruiter. Anyone who recruits a minimum of five members will receive a bottle of wine (and a good one too) and the most successful recruiter at 14 December will receive a cash prize of $500. All you have to do is this:

1. Start recruiting members. In the mail-out that accompanies this Bulletin are some brochures to assist in this process, and potential members can always be, referred to www.depa.net-au for further information.

2. Send the applications for new members into the office staking your own claim that you were responsible for recruiting them.

3. If you get five members, we will send you a nice bottle of red wine and if you are the best recruiter at the end of the year we will give you $500. Nothing could be simpler than that.

We hope we give away hundreds of bottles of wine and look forward to a ceremony equally as moving as that carried out at Wingecarribee, to provide our best recruiter with their cash prize in time for Xmas.

Marrickville pleads guilty

Marrickville Council has pleaded guilty to ten breaches of the Local Government (State) Award.

This admission of guilt follows from prosecutions filed by depa in a dispute over removal of the nine-day fortnight by the Council without taking the steps required by the Award.

The filing of prosecutions was an unusual step - we have never prosecuted a council like this in Our history before. However, following a completely uncooperative and unconstructive process of conciliation in an industrial dispute, we resolved to file prosecutions as well as having the dispute arbitrated.

On 26 June the Industrial Relations Commission will consider the guilty pleas and argument about an appropriate penalty. depa takes the view that there should be a significant penalty imposed by the, Commission to discourage other councils from Award breaches.

Ordinarily, when the, Industrial Relations Commission finds a party guilty of breaching an Award, there is a financial penalty paid to the prosecutor (in this case depa), an order for the prosecutor's costs and any other order that may follow.

While Marrickville is prepared to admit guilt, the Commission will need to determine the appropriate fine and penalty, orders about depa's costs and, as the Council has admitted that they have inappropriately removed the, nine day fortnight, whether or not the nine day fortnight should be re-instated.

The provision of the Award that has been breached is that which requires councils to do certain things before they remove the nine-day fortnight from new or vacant positions. Marrickville didn't do that and we suspect many other councils have broached this provision of the Award as well.

If you think your council might also be guilty of a breach, please phone the office.

A Strategic Alliance with the Planning Institute of Australia

We have been talking about our increasingly close relationship with the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) for a number of months.

On 1 May a Strategic Alliance agreement was signed between representatives of the PIA LG Network and depa.

Essentially, PIA will recommend that Planners in local government join depa. It has been an issue of concern to PIA over recent years that Planners have not had proper industrial representation and PIA is keen to ensure that it is provided. PIA members joining depa is a way of satisfying this concern.

depa has been signing up planners since 1996, and PIA identifies depa as the preferred choice for industrial representation.

As a special (limited) arrangement, we are offering 50% off for people who are PIA members or are thinking of becoming PIA members.

To take advantage of this offer, the new member must go on to payroll deductions. Current members should keep in mind that even 50% off members count towards the recruitment incentives mentioned earlier.

Historic salary dispute is finished!

In May 2000 depa filed a dispute with 75 Councils, known colloquially as "ehabsa v the rest of the world" it involved Parry and 74 other councils that we believed were not complying with their Award obligations on salary systems.

This dispute has been very slow moving but final resolutions at Hurstville, Strathfield and Fairfield have resolved all of those 75 councils for us.

There remain some other issues for the other unions, but as far as depa is concerned, the dispute is now resolved. Almost three years from its first notification to its final conclusion, it lum bers on with a glacier-like pace for the other unions. For us, it is finished and not before time

Lessons for everyone from the Sydney boundary changes - especially in the light of delayed elections to encourage amalgamation

Having lived through the messy and unsatisfactory way in which boundary changes affected Sydney, South Sydney and Leichhardt Councils, we feel confident to say there is a very clear lesson.

That lesson is that employees need to be absolutely certain of their entitlements and need to ensure that their employment conditions are properly protected.

Unfortunately, one of the by-products of the boundary change was that members voluntarily leaving South Sydney to go to Sydney Council discovered that South Sydney gave them notice to terminate their car leaseback agreements.

Most members will already have leaseback agreements that provide for a minimum notification period for termination of 12 months. This 12 month figure has been a standard arrangement since 1995 when agreement was reached between the LGA and the unions. It was agreed that the 18 months notice provision for those who provide their own cars .md get a car allowance should become 12 months and, in return, the LGA would ensure that leaseback agreements also provided a 12 month notice period.

Unfortunately, the leaseback agreements at South Sydney Council provided only for a three month notice period. Why would you sign that?

This is one of those unfortunate things in life that make us scratch our heads. We thought there was absolutely no doubt in people's minds that 12 months was a minimum period but, in a leaseback agreement that not only provides the most expensive cars in the state, members at South Sydney signed up for the most inadequate notice period.

Unfortunately, this agreement was negotiated without our involvement and we were unaware of its provisions.

Members at South Sydney then found them

selves in a Situation where the Council was enforcing something that the members themselves had agreed they could enforce.

Worse, the clause that allows the council to terminate the agreement with three months notice also saw them sign an undertaking that committed them to any decision being made to terminate their leases as being "final and binding on the leaseback holder".

While anyone who would sign a leaseback agreement that provides for only three months notice of termination may make us scratch our heads, why anyone would sign one that provided an absolute power, "that the employers decision is final and binding" has us tearing our hair out.

No one should ever sign any agreement without reading it properly or without asking us for an opinion. Its too late when the notice is provided to complain that while you signed it, you didn't read it or you didn't expect that it would ever be acted on. You cannot presume everything will be alright.

As the NSW government has cited encouragement for amalgamation as one of the reasons why the local government elections have been delayed until next year, we think it timely that everyone considers their industrial rights now.

While councils have been slow to embrace amalgamation over the last 8 years of the Carr government and while the government remains committed to 'voluntary' amalgamations, the government also regards boundary changes as being something different.

The second lesson we learn from this exercise was the value of a good relationship with the Minister's office. We were able to secure the future of a couple of members who did not want to be involved in the process but had been, by agreement between the councils, identified as participating within it. Our representations to the Minister's office made sure that those members' wishes were complied with.

An attitude to inter-union committees

We discourage members of depa from attending mass meetings of employees, because, in a mass meeting depa members would always be in a minority. Similarly, and based on the same principle, we never contemplated that members would participate in what are effectively committees of another union.

We discovered recently, in most unpleasant circumstances, that what we thought had been a Salaried Staff Committee at Wollongong Council was in fact an MEU Salaried Staff Committee and that members of other unions attended and participated solely at the discretion of the MEU.

We thought it was a genuine inter-union committee where the unions all met as equals and

where our members didn't have to satisfy anyone else. This turned out to be not the case. The depa Committee of Management resolved at the May meeting to remind members that it is inappropriate to be involved in the committee of any other union.

While we encourage members to meet with delegates from other unions at the council, particularly to caucus and ensure common views are represented at Consultative Committee meetings, the meetings with the other unions should only happen where the unions are equal partners.

The last thing we need are members from other unions making observations about the effectiveness of our own delegates and depa.

Goodbye Moira, Hello Carol

Moira Forrester has decided to spend more time in her garden so it is with regret we say goodbye and thanks to her for her hard work and commitment to the running of the depa office.

In appreciation of her efforts Moira was presented with a set of golf clubs and some lessons that we hope will make retirement fun as well as relaxing.

Carol Hannaford is the new depa Office Manager with a background in administration and communications. Carol works full time so access to the depa office is now available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

For any queries about membership Carol's email address is caroI@depa.net.au - and if you are trying to find lan, Carol will usually know where to find him!