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.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
