United magazine Summer 2019

WASTE WORKERS
TAKING ON THE CITY
On Monday 18 November 2019 at the City of Sydney’s Council meeting
the Councillors discussed the proposal to contract out Waste Services
to private contractor Cleanaway. Affected waste employees were in
attendance in hopes that the Council would reject the proposal and
protect their careers. The USU has challenged the Council vote.
WHY OUR MEMBERS
ARE TAKING A STAND!
On 13 November waste services workers
at the City of Sydney walked off
the job in response to management’s
refusal to consult with them over a
proposal to outsource household garbage
collection to a private contractor
without an open tender process.
The Councillors were provided with
some information from the USU and
employees of the City of Sydney about
potential inaccuracies in the costings
provided in the report that went to the
Councillors. They were also told of the
fears and anxieties of existing staff about
what would happen to them, where they
would be placed and what kind of work
they would end up doing. Several of
the Councillors expressed their concern
about whether they had received correct
and accurate costings and data in the report.
They also expressed their concerns
around the need to alleviate the anxieties
and concerns of the current employees
before any decision was made.
In light of this a motion was put by Deputy
Mayor Linda Scott to defer the voting on
the proposal to allow for further consultation
to occur between the affected
employees and council. The CEO of the
City of Sydney, Monica Barone, spoke
out against this motion. She informed
the Councillors that the City of Sydney
Wages/Salary Award 2017 did not allow
for Council to consult with its staff unless
a definite decision was made. She
said that because of this clause it would
be futile to defer as the City would not
Deputy Mayor Linda Scott, pictured with
members, put forward a motion to defer
the voting on the proposal to allow for
further consultation to occur between
the affected employees and council.
be allowed to engage in any consultation
discussions with the affected employees
until the Councillors had made the decision.
A few of the Councillors were concerned
that this did not seem practical or
logical and wished to discuss the matter
in confidence. The matter was discussed
in confidence then a decision was made
that the motion to defer could not be
put to Council to vote on as it would be
in contravention of the Sydney Wages/
Salary Award 2017.
The Union did not agree with this interpretation
and raised the matter in the
Industrial Relations Commission the next
morning with Chief Commissioner Kite.
Chief Commissioner Kite agreed with
the Union that clause 12.1 did not prevent
the Council from consulting. As
such, it would appear that Monica Barone
had misinformed the Councillors during
the meeting on Monday 18 November.
This means that the motion may have
been thrown out because of misleading
information provided by Monica Barone
to the Councillors.
We will keep members informed of the
progress of this dispute.
Almost 100 waste services staff voted
to immediately stop work after
management refused to answer their
questions or undertake genuine consultation
regarding the proposal to
hand over the work to private contractor
Cleanaway.
Workers had been seeking meetings
with management for several weeks
in an attempt to resolve the dispute,
before being told that they would not
have their questions answered.
The USU believes the outsourcing
proposal is deeply flawed and has
caused a great deal of uncertainty
among the City of Sydney’s loyal
workforce.
“Workers are concerned by this plan
which would see a private contractor
take over all household garbage
collection across the city without an
open and transparent tender process
or expressions of interest,” USU
General Secretary Graeme Kelly said.
“Workers spent weeks seeking a
meeting with management to discuss
this proposal, and when it finally
took place they were simply told their
questions would not be answered and
no negotiation would be entered into.
“Waste services workers felt they had
been left with no choice but to stop
work in an effort to force the City of
Sydney to undertake genuine consultation
with them.”
4 • United Winter 2019