United magazine • Summer 2021

COUNCIL SERVICES BY COUNCIL
The USU’s Council services by Council workers campaign ramped up during the local government elections with our
campaign truck covering kilometres, supporting candidates who support the campaign. This is just the beginning!
The Union commenced our campaign
to protect Council Services
and Council jobs, as it has been identified
that across the state Councils
were continually contracting out
work that should be carried out by
council workers.
Our campaign launched on 5th May
when we sent out a letter to all councils
across the state requesting their
use of contractor information.
LG NSW gave advice to Councils not
to respond to the Union’s request.
Despite this, a reasonable number of
Councils responded to the Union’s request
for the information.
The USU Contractor Committee reviewed
the material received from
Councils and determined that the
manner in which Councils would be
approached would be on the basis of
Award Compliance, and safety.
The committee has developed a
survey for delegates and members
to complete (see below), to gather
Our campaign
truck will
continue to
promote our
campaigns
firsthand information on contractors
councils are using and to report on
any safety concerns witnessed.
Those surveys are sent to committee
members who review and pass
DO YOU WORK IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT?
TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW
We launched our Council services
by Council workers campaign to
shine a light on the overuse of contractors
in local government and
to protect your job into the future.
With your help we hope to turn the
tide against the growing insecurity
in local government by opposing
the unnecessary outsourcing of
Council jobs.
TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW:
Take note of what services your
Council contracts out and help us
take a stand against this scourge on
our industry.
If you witness or are aware of any inappropriate
use of contracts or outsourcing
we encourage you to anonymously
report it to us.
Councils should be providing secure
local jobs where quality of work and
pride in one’s job is the priority. Our
multi skilled workforce, including
apprenticeships are suffering and
it’s time we say “Enough is Enough”.
We want to return security to local
government employment by protecting
Council services by Council
workers.
We have written to your Council
asking simple questions about their
use of external contractors, and
are now asking for your support
to help spread the word about our
Council services by Council workers
campaign.
4 • United Summer 2021