Council workers deserve fair pay!
Sign the petition today!
Council workers provide the services that Support our communities to thrive – library workers, waste collection drivers, educators, mowers, aged care workers, planners, maternal and child health nurses, administrative and policy staff all play a critical role in our daily lives.
Yet their work is undervalued and paid poorly. The average worker in a Victorian council earns less than $80,000 per year, and many are struggling to make ends meet.
Over the past 4 years, these workers have received pay increases as low as 1.5% a year, far below cost-of-living increases. On average, Council workers’ pay has fallen between 7 and 12% in real terms (when compared to inflation).
In addition to pay, staffing is inadequate and Councils have failed to invest in equipment and resources. This leads to high workloads, stress and unsafe work practices.
For too long, successive state governments have deliberately underfunded Councils and starved them of revenue because of bad, short-term policy choices. We have now reached a crisis point with Councils cutting services, contracting out and denying their workers decent pay rises.
Victorian Government policies have seen CEO and Executive salaries continue to skyrocket, whilst services are cut or outsourced, infrastructure crumbles, and workers fall further behind.
Enough is enough.
Council workers are fighting for their fair share from Councils and the State Government. Workers are seeking a recovery payment of 10% to address the money lost over the last 4 years and 4% thereafter in the current enterprise agreement negotiations for a multi-employer agreement to cover 8 Councils: Hume, Merri-bek, Yarra, Darebin, Melbourne, Greater Dandenong, Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong.
Council workers’ wages claim is modest and reasonable - we deserve wages that keep pace with cost-of-living increases.
Council workers have been forced to take a stand now to prevent further decline of public services.
Over the coming weeks, Council workers across the 8 Councils are taking industrial action. Services will be affected as Council workers initiate work bans on a wide range of their work – parking, permits, bin collection, libraries and more.
Council workers care about the community and have not made the decision to engage in industrial action lightly, but it is necessary so that the decision makers – the Premier, Councillors and CEOs stop taking Council workers for granted and negotiate for fair pay.
What can you do to support the campaign?
- Sign our community petition to call on the Government and Councils to offer Council workers a fair pay
- Ring your Council, local MP, call or email the Premier’s office on (03) 9651 5000 or [email protected] to complain about the service disruption. Please be kind to our members taking these calls but make sure the decision makers know the public care about Council services!
- Put up a sign, join our campaign and make some noise – let us know how you can help at [email protected]!