Alan Dickens, Brunswick Heads
I previously wrote of three outdoor workers who over a period of years working for council in the area of construction and maintenance had achieved promotions to supervisory positions. These three employees have worked for a total of eighty years between them for Byron Shire Council a major part of their working life, never a problem with their performance, as far as I have been made aware. But as of April 1 these three employees’ careers are over with Byron Shire Council and they are not the first.
In 2017 Byron Shire Council’s (BSC) human resources department stated in a newsletter that, ‘Consistent with actions from our Workforce Plan, Council is increasing representation of women and young people in our workforce’. It seems to me that older outdoor male workers could be the sacrificial lambs to create the room to employ these younger people.
Is BSC not valuing sufficiently the years of loyal and competent service these mature outdoor employees have supplied? They are to be removed from their positions, some at the later stage of their working lives, when they will find it very difficult to find other employment.
I can just imagine the outcries of discrimination etc if the mature women who are working for BSC were treated the same way.
This was not a restructer by Byron Shire Council these three men were targeted to be removed by what ever means was necessary. This attack began last year. The United Services Union came in to represent these three men and informed council management they were in breech of the award and a the union would seek a ruling from Fair Work. Council staff informed the union representative at the first meeting that three men had passed a questionnaire they were asked to complete as some form of assessment in the workplace but at the Fair Work hearing council representatives said the men failed that questionnaire. So while these three men are pushed out of their positions by council and they are not the first this has happened to numerous other permanent and casual staff have been pushed out to allow younger people to be employed, the people pushed out were not even given a chance to apply for the now permanent position and as per normal the out going staff have to sign a confidentiality agreement so they cannot speak of what was done to them. . Meanwhile we have more and more young engineers employed and young ladies employed in the Council office. So council removes outdoor staff and indoor casual staff who actually do the work and replace them with higher payed permanent staff but who do not carry out practical in the ground work. Rather confusing.