Brimbank literally called the cops to prevent you hearing about your rights

18 February 2025

Your ASU delegates and officials have been active over the past couple of weeks sharing information about the opportunity presented by multi-employer bargaining and asking Brimbank employees to sign a petition to demonstrate their support.

Multi-employer bargaining laws present an important and exciting opportunity for workers to increase their bargaining power and fight for a decent pay rise. Find out more or sign our petition here.

Throughout this period all we have been doing is sharing information, answering questions truthfully and factually, and inviting you and your colleagues to make up your own mind.

Over this same period, your employer has:
  • Actively blocked ASU delegates and officials from meeting or speaking with Brimbank employees
  • Refused to uphold the rights of your delegates to communicate with you about your industrial interests
  • Prevented an ASU official from talking to workers whilst she was swimming at the leisure centre (she was in her bathers)
  • Sent ‘cease and desist’ letters to the ASU
  • Actively promoted misinformation and disinformation about the ASU and MEBs; and
  • Refused to allow the ASU or its delegates or officials to provide balanced information to staff via the email system.

And today, Brimbank City Council officially jumped the shark. They called the cops on an ASU official sitting in a lunchroom with a valid Right of Entry permit!

Your employer has done everything possible to undermine the democratic decision-making of Brimbank employees.

Council’s behaviour is so bad that we made a video about it, and have even written to the Premier of Victoria.

This all invites the question: Why? What are they so worried about? Why are they actively trying to prevent Brimbank employees from accessing important information about your rights?

They are desperately fighting and trying to preserve the status quo; the same system that they have used to hold your wages back and attack your working conditions.

They are saying “you can trust us – we have your best interests at heart”. But we urge you to look at how Council is behaving and judge whether or not they are worthy of that trust.

Please consider the past record of Council in EA negotiations and judge whether using that same system – that allows your employer to drag out negotiations, fail to negotiate constructively, and undermine bargaining by putting an agreement out to vote without reaching in-principle agreement with the union – is likely to achieve the pay rise that ASU members desperately need and deserve.

We invite all Brimbank employees to sign our petition to pursue multi-employer bargaining.