Claims about non-union member employees branded as false
Published Tuesday, 08 July, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Minister for Main Roads and Local Government
The Honourable Warren Pitt
Non-union member employees of local councils have not been excluded from enterprise bargaining arrangements, Local Government Minister Warren Pitt said today.
Mr Pitt said National Party MPs had issued statements which deliberately misrepresented the opportunity for non-union employees to be involved in enterprise bargaining talks.
“It is patently false what the Opposition’s local government spokesman, Howard Hobbs, is saying. Likewise, the claims by the National Party Member for Bundaberg, Jack Dempsey, are untrue.
“Non-union members are not excluded from the process at all. At my request, a letter sent recently explained to local councils just how non-union members can be involved in enterprise bargaining discussions with the councils who employ them.
“Mr Hobbs is trotting out all his tired old union-bashing claims, saying non-union council employees are being discriminated against, and that he’ll be interested to hear what the Anti-Discrimination Board has to say.
“I can say right now that the Anti-Discrimination Board will not find anything discriminatory or untoward about the arrangements that are in place. This is because there is ample provision and opportunity for non-union members to be involved in the process.
“Non-union members can and typically do take part in the enterprise bargaining process. They can participate. They can be consulted. They can be involved. How much is up to them and their local councils to determine.
“When the process reaches the formal negotiation stage, then it is the signatories to the enterprise agreement that are involved. Under the Industrial Relations Act, the signatories are the employer – which is the council concerned – and the employee organisations – which are the unions.
The letter that has been sent to councils makes this clear. It says: “Chief Executive Officers (of councils) are urged to differentiate between the essential need to engage employees in consultative industrial relations and the formal bargaining process itself.
“The separation between the formal negotiations and the employee engagement process will not cause confusion with the roles and responsibilities of industrial parties as outlined in the Industrial Relations Act.”
Mr Pitt said individual employees were not signatories to an enterprise bargaining agreement. Thus, individual employees were not involved at the formal negotiating stage of the process.
“What I do know is non-union member employees benefit substantially from the wages and conditions which their colleagues who are members of unions are able to negotiate.
“Far from being hard done by and getting a raw deal as Mr Hobbs would want people to believe, they enjoy a coat tails ride.”
Mr Pitt said it needed to be understood that councils were not being forced by the State Government to comply with enterprise bargaining arrangements that they did not agree with or support.
“The councils are willing participants in the enterprise bargaining system and process. The arrangements in place provides councils with a legal and practical framework for successfully concluding an enterprise agreement with its workforce,”
“Mr Hobbs and the Opposition reside in some kind of industrial relations fantasyland, where you can have your cake – an enterprise bargaining system that allows councils to put in place binding and workable agreements with their employees – and eat it too, by shooting that system down in flames.”
Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819
Mr Pitt said National Party MPs had issued statements which deliberately misrepresented the opportunity for non-union employees to be involved in enterprise bargaining talks.
“It is patently false what the Opposition’s local government spokesman, Howard Hobbs, is saying. Likewise, the claims by the National Party Member for Bundaberg, Jack Dempsey, are untrue.
“Non-union members are not excluded from the process at all. At my request, a letter sent recently explained to local councils just how non-union members can be involved in enterprise bargaining discussions with the councils who employ them.
“Mr Hobbs is trotting out all his tired old union-bashing claims, saying non-union council employees are being discriminated against, and that he’ll be interested to hear what the Anti-Discrimination Board has to say.
“I can say right now that the Anti-Discrimination Board will not find anything discriminatory or untoward about the arrangements that are in place. This is because there is ample provision and opportunity for non-union members to be involved in the process.
“Non-union members can and typically do take part in the enterprise bargaining process. They can participate. They can be consulted. They can be involved. How much is up to them and their local councils to determine.
“When the process reaches the formal negotiation stage, then it is the signatories to the enterprise agreement that are involved. Under the Industrial Relations Act, the signatories are the employer – which is the council concerned – and the employee organisations – which are the unions.
The letter that has been sent to councils makes this clear. It says: “Chief Executive Officers (of councils) are urged to differentiate between the essential need to engage employees in consultative industrial relations and the formal bargaining process itself.
“The separation between the formal negotiations and the employee engagement process will not cause confusion with the roles and responsibilities of industrial parties as outlined in the Industrial Relations Act.”
Mr Pitt said individual employees were not signatories to an enterprise bargaining agreement. Thus, individual employees were not involved at the formal negotiating stage of the process.
“What I do know is non-union member employees benefit substantially from the wages and conditions which their colleagues who are members of unions are able to negotiate.
“Far from being hard done by and getting a raw deal as Mr Hobbs would want people to believe, they enjoy a coat tails ride.”
Mr Pitt said it needed to be understood that councils were not being forced by the State Government to comply with enterprise bargaining arrangements that they did not agree with or support.
“The councils are willing participants in the enterprise bargaining system and process. The arrangements in place provides councils with a legal and practical framework for successfully concluding an enterprise agreement with its workforce,”
“Mr Hobbs and the Opposition reside in some kind of industrial relations fantasyland, where you can have your cake – an enterprise bargaining system that allows councils to put in place binding and workable agreements with their employees – and eat it too, by shooting that system down in flames.”
Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819