Latest news

O’Farrell/Shooters and Fishers deal to cull more ferals

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01

Premier O’Farrell today announced an extension of the current licenced shooters programme to cull feral animals in National Parks to allow licenced shooters to cull feral demonstrators demonstrating against the Government in Macquarie Street.

“I agree with the Prime Minister’s observation about the important conservation role performed by those who chop down trees, particularly old growth forests, and shooters who take life are similarly conscious of the need to conserve it,” the Premier said.

In the deal announced between the Government and the Legislative Council crossbenchers it was recognised that demonstrations against planning reform, where members of the Legislative Council from the Shooters and Fishers Party had been prominent, would be exempted from the cull.

“We are trying to slash and burn within the public sector and demonstrations against cuts and public sector pay policy will be a priority. This is really just being more proactive and effective”, the Premier said.

O’Farrell/Christian Democrats deal to reduce smut and innuendo behind removal of BPB’s Neil Cocks and Margaret Hole

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01

The disappearance of BPB CEO Neil Cocks into the Department of Planning and the removal of BPB Board member Margaret Hole was acknowledged today as part of a Government campaign to remove smut, cheap jokes and innuendo from the NSW Public Sector.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell admitted that the Government needed crossbench support from the Upper House and, like agreements with the Shooters and Fishers to allow culling of feral animals in National Parks, an agreement with Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats will have widespread ramifications across the public sector.

“Neil had to go”, the Premier said. “He could so easily have simply used an “x” but the flagrant flaunting of the unfortunate plural was too much.”

CEO Neil Cocks had always been a problem for depaNews with a number of councils refusing to accept any publication where his name appeared prominently but Ms Hole was a risk as well. Nevertheless the names both individually and, particularly, in juxtaposition, was sufficient to distress our moral guardians in the Legislative Council and the Government.

In responding to questions Premier O’Farrell indicated that the process is really just beginning and questionable names would no longer have a place in Her Majesty’s New South Wales Government.

Prominent class-action litigants Slater and Gordon announced they will mount a class action for damages against the Government and inviting responses from others affected and targeting names such as Dick, Dolores, Fanny and John Thomas.

“This is just the start”, the Premier said. We will be clearing up innuendo in names as well as gestures is public.”

Premier O’Farrell and Mr Nile MLC demonstrate gestures no longer allowable in the public sector

Excited about April Fools’ Day?

Details: Published: Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:00

Apart from breakfast radio, April Fools’ Day is really a bit old-fashioned these days. A pity really but in a modern workplace with anxieties about bullying and workplace safety, there isn’t much room for fun for fear of the ramifications of fellow workers taking “kick me” signs too literally or enthusiastically.

So, this is a friendly reminder about your health and safety responsibilities to workmates on Tuesday 1 April. In a sophisticated industry like local government, surely everyone is too mature for this sort of childish behaviour anyway.

Election results declared

Details: Published: Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:00

Not like this

Nor this

But like this

2014 election provides new blood to the Committee of Management

The Electoral Commission of NSW has just announced the successful election of ten candidates for the ten vacant positions on the Committee of Management.

How good is this? Seven members of the current Committee stood for re-election and have been returned and will be joined by three fresh and enthusiastic new members. That’s a good balance.

Elections are held every two years and the Electoral Commission has declared Andrew Spooner elected as President, Jo Doheny and Jamie Loader as Vice Presidents and six members of the Committee of Management - three from the previous Committee, Jim Boyce, Joanne Dunkerley and Les Green and three new members, Vince Galletto, Rachael Jenner and Paul Reynolds.

And me, of course, for another four years. Four is ordinary, I said in my policy statement I’d have another 30.

The election provides a transfusion of blood into the Committee (maybe the Keith Richards analogy is more accurate than we think) and perfectly supplements the experience and long-standing of the current members. While none of those who’ve been around for a while believe we are waning in our enthusiasm or commitment, it’s good to have new people on asking fresh questions and wondering why, or why not.

It also continues our three women representatives which, with seven blokes, is a good reflection of the gender breakup of our membership.

Candidates for election are required under our rules to provide a policy statement of up to 200 words so that voters are informed about what people have to offer and can cast their votes accordingly. But, if there is no election, members don’t get to see the things that candidates believed important to present to the electorate.

You can use this link to see the policy statements of the ten candidates.

Andrew, Jamie, Jim and Les have all been trained as health and building surveyors. Andrew is the Sustainable City and Environment Manager at Campbelltown, Jamie is the Manager Building Certification Compliance and Health at Wyong, Jim is ex-Taree and Hurstville and looking and Les allegedly retired last year but now has a 12 months gig at Bankstown as their Swimming Pool Compliance Officer.

Jo is Senior Landuse Planner in Integrated Planning at Gosford and Joanne was trained as a health and building surveyor, qualified as a planner and is now Strategic Land use Planner at Great Lakes Council.

Of the three new members, Vince Galletto has a health and building background and is Team Leader - Building and Development Advisory Service at Ryde, Rachael and Paul both have health and building backgrounds, Rachael is an EHO at Ballina and Paul is Specialist Support EHO at Camden.

Vince Galletto

Rachael Jenner

Paul Reynolds

The members of the new Committee will take office from 1 May and the first meeting will be on 12 May.

We have a new Office Manager starting on Monday 3 March

Details: Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:24

We’ve been operating without an office manager for the past month or so and have a new person starting next Monday. She will send you all an email introducing herself next week.

We apologise if you have had administrative issues that haven’t been dealt with over the past four weeks - you may have tried to join using the website, you may have emailed admin@depa and you may have needed a list of financial members for the purposes of getting the day off properly on picnic day on 14 March.

All those things will work their way through but if you do need a list of financial members, ring me.

Union Picnic Day golf day cancelled this year

Details: Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:22

Everyone is distressed. This is very, very sad news for our regulars.

Well, what is it? You don’t like beautiful places, you don’t want to hang out with your workmates, you don’t want good company and a good laugh, you don’t like a challenge, you’ve got better things to do?

In January we announced that the golf day was on again on union picnic day at Blackheath and immediately heard from the usual enthusiastic players. Even teams from as far away as Bega and Shoalhaven look forward to this day. We received a few more but after that, not much at all.

The lack of interest (and a double booking at Blackheath by an office manager of ours who doesn’t work here anymore and had thought it made sense because we’ve been playing there every second Friday for a decade to book the first Friday) made the Committee resolve, sadly, to cancel the day this year.

We hope that the day will continue on Friday 13 March 2015. It’s in your hands.

Doing other work? What does your Council do about section 353?

Details: Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:19

Section 353 of the Local Government Act requires employees who want to, or are doing work outside the Council that relates to or conflicts with their council job, to declare that work and seek the general manager’s approval.

It’s not a general opportunity to pry into the private lives of employees, look under their beds or do anything else quite that furtive or prurient.

We ran a big dispute against Sydney Council in 1994 when the prurient there decided they wanted employees to declare all work. All unions were involved, members of the three unions had placed bans on complying with the proposed new arrangements, the Labor Council of NSW at the time appeared in support and the DLG eventually advised the Council that while they could develop their own policies on managing other work, whatever they did had to be consistent with the Act.

As part of the dispute the Industrial Relations Commission directed that the Council not proceed with this policy until such time as an agreement had been reached with the unions in dispute or the dispute had been resolved by the Commission. Subsequently the Council agreed that it would only require employees to declare work for approval that was consistent with section 353 and that related to or conflicted with their Council job.

But, while this agreement was made between the unions and the Council in the Commission, without advice to those unions which had the agreement with the Council, the Council reverted to the old practice - looking under the bed, peeking through your window, going through your drawers. If it doesn’t relate to or conflict with the job, it’s none of the council’s business. It’s an invasion of your privacy.

Adversarial jurisdictions like industrial tribunals rely upon parties bargaining in good faith and sticking to agreements that they have made. There are few things worse than one party breaching an agreement or abandoning it without telling the other parties.

It may have been accidental, changing faces in HR can’t always be aware of the history that precedes them and we are pursuing Sydney Council now. They don’t really do themselves any favours by responding to our comprehensive argument that they are reviewing it and will respond “in due course”. Sir Humphrey would be proud.

We regularly remind members about the purpose of section 353 and ask you to let us know if your council is doing the right thing. The Council can only ask you to declare and seek approval for work which relates to or conflict with - nothing more and nothing less.

Please let us know if any councils are out there doing what Sydney is doing.

You don’t have to be a member, but what would you do if …

Details: Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 12:17

Whether you decide to be a member of depa or other unions is entirely up to you. You can’t be made to join and unions make significant efforts to make membership attractive. A range of services, often journey claim insurance when governments antagonistic to protection of workers injured on their way to or from work remove protection, a free day off on union picnic day and access to advice and assistance when you need it.

Lots of people decide they don’t need that but then sometimes they find themselves in trouble.

What do you do if you’re not a union member and you suddenly find that you are one of the people being investigated in an ICAC investigation, just like they’re doing at the moment at one Council?

What do you do if you’re not a union member and you’re off on parental leave and when you want to come back to work part time, the Council says they want your car back?

There are lots of examples, of course, of things that can happen where you need instant advice and assistance, but these are two real examples of people who thought they could look after themselves and then found that maybe they couldn’t: trying to join depa when they already had a problem, a bit like ringing up an insurer when the front of your house is on fire and wanting a cover note.

depa, like other unions, has a policy of not providing services to people for things that predate their membership. You’d be surprised how many people want to argue about this but the Committee of Management has resolved the very clear policy where there is no discretion.

Join tomorrow and we cover you for things that happen after you join.

Want to risk it?

Uh oh, they’re back …

Details: Published: Tuesday, 25 February 2014 15:02

Click for high resolution image

You’ve got to love Alan Moir. Apart from him giving us permission to publish this image in high resolution format (instead of pinching it from the web like we usually do, thanks Alan) his cartoons always hit the mark in the most painful way for the target and illustrate better than most the truism of a picture painting a thousand words.

The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday 21 February announced “Major review of industrial relations laws planned” on its front page. Well, what a shock.

We knew that the Prime Minister couldn’t keep his hands off it much longer. What a pity, as Shaun Micallef says, that the Government can’t be like the Opposition, and have no ideology.

More of a pity that they can’t leave their hatreds and antagonisms to the side and get on with proper decision-making. Undermine Gonski and take money from public schooling, pander to the tobacco, food and alcohol lobbies, sack the Climate Commission, review school curricula, erode Medicare, wind back the National Disability Insurance Scheme? No worries, all these things end up on a to-do list.

Has the Government got what it takes to save local government?

Details: Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 11:49

The Government has already decided to extend the deadline for comment on the Final Report of the Independent Review Panel - notwithstanding that the report remains unchanged from that originally available months ago. And, let’s face it, if people with a vested interest in making sure nothing happens want to contest the laudable and largely incontestable recommendations of the Independent Panel, surely they are capable of getting their fingers out and doing so.

Just as we felt sorry for Kevin Sproat’s efforts in 2001 when his thoughtful, incisive and scholarly report into potential amalgamations in the Sydney metropolitan area was received by the Government and then promptly filed, we already feel sorry for the members of the Independent Panel. Graham Sansom, Jude Munro and Glenn Inglis laboured mightily and produced a document capable of being rejected only by those who want nothing to change. Ever.

We are sick of financial basket case councils; those that are effectively trading insolvent; those claiming they can’t afford to pay market rates; those which would rather leave positions vacant and have other professionals pick up the slack;, where there is anxiety about whether they could pay staff entitlements if they all left tomorrow; which quibble about sending staff to training; contest flexible working arrangements as unaffordable and contrary to operational needs artificially established due to an inability to attract staff, and which can’t properly resource critical functions and needs, and we can’t wait for someone to do something.