The September Bulletin reported on the steps being taken by the employee representatives on the LGSS since July to have Chair Peter Woods stand down after almost 9 1/2 years and allow a member representative to replace him. As background we reported that Woods had agreed in 1997 to stand down in 2001 and to rotate the Chair between employee and employer representatives every four years.

An agreement with the USU in 2001 saw him reappointed with an agreement with the then General Secretary of the USU Brian Harris to stand down when Harris retired from his position. Harris retired in September but Woods remains. We should all learn a lesson from this. It’s so much better to have terms of office included in a Constitution or some other document.

Well, it's now December and Woods remains firmly and resolutely in the Chair.

 

Hundreds of members used the link provided in the September Bulletin to deny that Woods, consistent with the Divine Right of Kings, should remain Chair as long as he damn well liked. And a lot of people who aren't members used the link to tell us that he should go as well. We had no idea so many general managers and other interested people cared.

The Chair was very agitated at the December meeting of the LGSS Board that the report in our September Bulletin, published also on our "tin pot union website", as he put it, breached Board confidentiality, so it is with some trepidation that we continue to report things we think that members of the LGSS have a right to know.

There is a "general flavour of disclosure"(as a lawyer once described it to us) in the Superannuation Industry Supervision (SIS) Act and it is the SIS Act, together with Corporations Law, that determines how a superannuation fund should behave. The SIS Act requires that boards are obliged to provide certain information to members of the fund but the "general flavour of disclosure" encourages openness and transparency in the stewardship and management of members’ retirement incomes.

Corporations Law regulates public corporations and establishes relatively strict levels of confidentiality - levels now being challenged by shareholder rights organisations and advocates as little more than an excuse to hide things that should ordinarily be accessible by shareholder owners. Public corporations don't have the same obligations to disclose as superannuation funds which comply with the SIS Act.

But an agitated Chair is an agitated Chair so we won't be reporting on what may have been said by individual Board members in debate and we won't be reporting on the numbers of votes cast on particular resolutions. We think people should be more accountable and if you going to say stupid things at Board meetings, you should be game enough to say them outside. Or just not say stupid things at all.

Neither will we report on how many meetings of the Board have been abandoned because the employer representatives have refused to attend, the difficulties in organising shareholder meetings to resolve this issue because LGSA shareholder representatives haven't been available, nor the plethora of things that occur that the employer representatives would like to keep quiet. Well, not yet anyway.

Clearly there are things that are superannuation boards deal with that should be confidential - tendering, business and commercial matters, personal and financial details about individual members etc - but there are many, many things that should be accessible to members as part of our accountability in managing their retirement incomes.

Confidentiality provisions should never be misused to suppress information that is legitimately the right of members. Like, for example, the proper disclosure of how The Chair can hold onto a position he should have handed over back in September and the sorts of things he and the other employee representatives say at Board meetings in defence of that unacceptable practice. Neither will we report what is said at Board meetings about what is happening in the background to make it more acceptable for The Chair to do the right thing. Well, not yet anyway.

An agreement has been reached in principle between the LGSA and the USU shareholders for a Constitution change from 31 March to require a new Chair and the introduction of a rotating two-year term. While we and the LGEA wanted a four year term for the first employee member Chair, and while the LGSA correspondence doesn't mention their acceptance that the new Chair will be a member representative, this is probably how it will all end. No bang, lots of wimpering.

So, despite this agreement, The Chair would still not acknowledge that he would stand down when he was pressed at the LGSS Board meeting on 20 December. We think we can get away with saying what didn't happen at Board meetings.

We expect Woods will be gone as Chair on 31 March and will revert to a position of Board member and that, around that time, he will also become Chair of the Futureplus Board - another of the five boards that ex-councillor Woods sits on, and is remunerated for, as part of his LGSS role.

Who gets the AFPC increase (back)

Well, it depends. If you were asking the LGSA this question, they would have answered it differently depending on whether you asked at the time they put their submission to the AFPC asking for an exemption so that councils didn't have to pay it or, after they had lost that request and the AFPC decided that they had to.

In a General Circular to councils two weeks ago, the LGSA advised that they had "received legal advice that, as the increases in the Local Government (State) Award were not determined by the Commission wholly or partly on the ground of work value change" then the increases are payable on the rates existing prior to 27 March 2006. That is, on the rates before the 3% increase under the Award/NAPSA from the first pay period in November. That legal advice means that the $22.30 can be absorbed into the 3% paid in November.

They would have made life easier for all of us if they had found this opinion before they made their submission claiming an exemption from the AFPC increase on the grounds of the industry's financial incapacity to pay. If you need a reminder about this process, check the November Bulletin and go to the links provided.

Anyway, what all this shows is that everyone is struggling with Workchoices, the AFPC and how it is all going to work. There are no experts yet.

We have referred what the LGSA says to be their advice to our lawyers but won't have authoritative advice until next year. What the heck, we’re all nearly all holidays!

Councils continue to sign Referral Agreements (back)

We want all councils to sign Referral Agreements so that we can continue to run disputes and unfair dismissal applications in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

But, as we keep mentioning, even if all councils signed Referral Agreements (and we know they all won't) that still does not allow us to negotiate a new Local Government (State) Award to apply when the current Award/NAPSA expires in November 2007.

And that is the real problem to deal with in 2007.

What to do if your irritating HR Manager offers you an AWA (back)

We know that there are some very zealous HR Managers who are extremely enthusiastic about bending staff over and offering them an AWA. The High Court has cleared the way for AWAs in the industry and we are already dealing with Council's wanting to discuss workplace agreements under the Federal legislation.

No one can be forced to sign an AWA. This is actually an offence and councils, general managers, HR managers or whoever else can be prosecuted by the Office of Workplace Relations for trying to force existing employees onto AWAs.

We would love to take the first prosecution to them, so keep us aware of what's going on.

There is no such protection preventing new employment being offered only on AWAs - we will need to wait for a change of Federal Government for that. So, if you apply for a job in a different Council, then who knows what you will be offered?

We remain comforted that the professions of environmental health, public health, building and regulatory control and planning are all suffering shortages. Councils won't be able to be too tough about cutting costs through AWAs in this area or they will end up with no staff.

If your irritating HR Manager offers you an AWAor raises the prospect of individual or collective AWAs, contact us immediately.

Nambucca Council is one considering individual workplace agreements for directors and managers. We were able to have the general manager agree to defer his timetable to allow proper consideration of the proposal. Will be able to act at other councils to protect employees as well.

Remember, as we approach the end of the year, WorkChoices doesn't make people bad or unpleasant employers but it does allow those who would like to be bad and unpleasant far more latitude to get away with it.

What, no fee increases in 2007? (back)

The Committee of Management adopted a budget for 2007 at the November meeting and resolved that the membership fees would remain unchanged. This will be the fourth year that the fee will remain at $7.66 a week, or just under $400 annually. We think this is terrific value for money but we can only keep our fees at this level by keeping our membership numbers up.

That's where you come in. The more members we have, the more people we can spread our costs across. And we will continue to offer a bottle of good red wine for every five members you recruit in 2007.

And, sorry if we have to mention this ourselves, what fantastic financial management to be able to do this! No Council can do it, no other union in Australia can do it and we defy you to find anyone, who provides you with any service, of any sort, who can match us. Isn't it about time that the Local Government Managers’ Association gave us an award for excellence in financial management?

Have a fabulous break! (back)

The depa office will be closing around the middle of the day on Friday 22 December and reopening at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday 2 January. 2006 has been a long and gruelling year and 2007, confronting the ugly face of WorkChoices and the creeps and dilettantes who will get excited about that and want to make your life more difficult, will be a bigger challenge.

We wish you all, and your families (and, what the heck, just about bloody everyone apart from Peter Woods) a great Christmas and a safe, comfortable and securely-employed new year.

 

Kerry Hunt

President

 

Ian Robertson

Secretary

 

1 Comply with the Council’s Code of Conduct

Read the Council’s Code of Conduct and where it says things you should or shouldn’t do as an employee, make sure you do them, or don’t do them, consistent with the Code. If you think there’s something wrong with the Code, ring depa, don’t ignore it.

2 Comply with rules on internet and email use

Read the Council’s internet and email conditions of use. It will restrict access and distribution of “offensive” material. You don’t want to have to argue later that you didn’t think something was offensive so, as a bit of a rough rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t like your Mum to see it, it shouldn’t be on the Council’s system. If someone sends you something which you think could be a bit off, reply requesting that the sender not do it again and give a copy of your reply email to your supervisor. The hard drive will always show what you have been doing. There are no secrets, you can never really delete anything. The hard-drive has it all.

Remember too that just as councils are entitled to expect that you don't abuse their telephones for private purposes, they are also entitled to expect that you won't abuse their e-mail and Internet arrangements. A Council’s electronic files are not the place to keep everything you thought was clever, cute, funny, or that you might later send to other people, or whatever. If you want to keep anything private, e-mail it to your home address, put it on a disk of your own and keep it separately or print it off. We have had too many members in trouble for jamming up the storage capacity of Council systems. And, if you have too much material stored, someone will wonder what it is and start looking through it.

3 Don’t agree to anything without knowing what it is

Read anything that requires you to agree to something. If you have to agree to comply with certain things to get access to the Council’s computer system, make sure you know what you are doing, what you should have read and what you are agreeing to when you click on “okay”. Invariably all new employees are told about Council e-mail and Internet policies at induction even if you don't remember. And whether you remember or not, someone else will.

If you click on "okay" to get access to the computer you do so acknowledging that you have read the policies.

4 Comply with section 353

Read section 353 of the Local Government Act. It requires that you declare work that “relates to the business of the council” or “that might conflict” with your job. You don’t have to declare anything else and if the Council has a policy that you should do so, ring us. We will change the Council’s policy to something less intrusive and consistent with the Act. Err on the side of caution, declare anything you think could fit these criteria or ask us for help. Don’t try to be too clever or literal.

5 Complete a pecuniary interests declaration if you are asked

Complete a pecuniary interest form if you are required to. The form will allow you to elect whether you are declaring for a full year or on a particular date. It is not clever to divest yourself of interests, fill the form out for a particular date, and then re-acquire them. Don't laugh, someone tried this.

If you are worried about public access you can ask that it be suppressed under section 739(1) of the Local Government Act.

6 Get depa involved at the start, not the finish

Talk to us at the first sign of trouble – not at the final warning.

7 Be careful what you admit to

Don’t admit to something you didn’t do because you think that might make the problem go away. It won’t. It will be a bigger problem because you will have confessed. They will then think you had poor judgment for confessing, in addition to the problem they had arising from the allegation.

8 Don’t resign without getting advice

Don’t resign over anything without getting advice from us. The accepted principles of natural justice will give you time to contact us.

9 Think before you answer and don’t make things up

Don’t respond with an explanation for one offence that becomes another offence. If they wonder why your Council phone was making calls from outside the Council area, when you shouldn’t have been there, don’t explain that you had loaned it to someone else, if the conditions of use say that you shouldn’t do that.

10 Be careful what you call people

Don’t call the GM, the Mayor or any of the councillors get-rich-quicks, timeservers, drama queens, one issue zealots, witless wankers, mad people, self-obsessed, self-important, pompous, the lowest common denominator or anything else like that. Leave that to us.

And don’t call anyone “darl”, or “girlie” or sweetie” unless they are your kids or you’re sleeping with them.

11 Join the union

This is the most important advice of all. If you happen to be reading this and you are not a member of depa, you should join. Being a member entitles you to advice and assistance for a whole range of workplace problems and issues – not just disciplinary problems.

12 Contact depa

Phone 9712 5255

Fax 0712 5427

ian@depa.net.au