United magazine • Summer 2021

IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING
YOUR DOCUMENTATION
Do you make sure that you keep all of your employment records? It does not matter how old they are it is still vital to
keep them. Recently Port Macquarie Organiser Damien Welsh dealt with an issue that was resolved in the member’s
favour thanks to the records he had kept.
It is always wise to keep copies of
documentation relating to your
work, that being “letters of offer”,
“terms and conditions of employment”,
acceptance of new positions
of employment (promotion), changes
to positions etc. A couple of members
on the Mid Coast have recently
found out why it is so important to
keep all documentation and letters
from your employer.
A member who retired in August
this year, contacted the local Official
to seek answers as to why they did
not receive payment for a “term and
condition of employment”. After
speaking with the member, the local
Official found out that the member
first started working for Council in the
early 80’s and that Council offered an
above Award entitlement to attract
and retain staff.
The member scanned and emailed
his “letter of offer” and the “terms
and conditions” of his employment
to the local Official so that the issue
could be taken further with Council.
A meeting was organised between
the HR Manager, the local Delegate
and the local Official to discuss the
matter, firstly on an individual basis
but also on the basis that other members
were entitled to the same payment.
The Manager first stated that
there was no information on Council’s
files or records, and that the terms
and conditions were not valid, due
to an Enterprise Agreement that took
effect in 2017 overriding any previous
entitlements.
The local Official first made the
point, that an Enterprise Agreement
could not take away from individual
arrangements made and accepted
through contracts of employment
and enquired as to why Council did
not have any documentation regarding
this matter. The answer was
that recently there has been a lot of
“turnaround” in the Records Section,
the files are old and when they were
transferred into the computer systems,
they were either missed, the
wrong side scanned or were not kept
in the first place.
After the meeting Council took a copy
of the documentation, so that discussions
could take place with Senior
Management. The first response
from Council was that they still believed
that they did not have to pay
the applicable payment. This was
later changed after pressure from
Always keep
employment
records - no
matter how
old they are!
the Union to dispute the matter was
put forward. Council then decided it
would pay, but only if the employee
could show that they had it in their
“letters of offer and the term and
conditions of employment”. The local
Official provided several other letters
to Council and stated that it was
quite clear that members who were
employed prior to 1992 all had the
same “terms and conditions” in their
offers. Council reluctantly agreed after
the local Official again stated that
the union would dispute the matter if
Council did not change its position.
If you have certain conditions of employment
that were offered to you
when you first started working and
you are about to accept a new position,
make sure that the old entitlements
are carried over in the new letter.
Don’t rely on verbal or handshake
agreements, as a lot of times these
people leave the Organisation and
with them goes the agreement.
32 • United Summer 2021