In May of this year, Bass Coast Council proposed updating the current Code of Conduct, Smoking and Drug and Alcohol policies. You as members raised concerns about some of the proposed changes.
The ASU wrote to Council on your behalf and whilst the smoking policy and the new drug and alcohol policy were not adopted only minor changes were achieved to the code of conduct policy.
On June 30, the ASU lodged a formal Grievance as per Clause 14 of Bass Coast EBA. Organisers and Delegate Brendan Hill met with management to discuss concerns about the proposed policy.
On July 13, Council proposed a new and improved version of this policy, there were some significant improvements however some areas of concern remained.
After further correspondence with Council, we were presented with another improved version of this policy.
Improvements were made by way of softening wording regarding obligations to notify of perceived or actual conflicts of interest, softening the consequences for breaches of the code, an additional document added to explain what Council consider as perceived or actual conflicts of interest and extra dot points to help explain expectations of staff under this policy.
ASU and our members consider this to be a vast improvement on the original document and we thank Council for their cooperation throughout this process.
This is a good news story of ASU members and Council working together to develop a policy that all staff can be comfortable with.
We are stronger when we are united. Speak to your colleagues about joining the ASU and invite them along to attend one of these important meetings. It’s easy for anyone to join online at www.asu.asn.au/asujoin
For further information please contact:
ASU Delegates Corin Spencer, Charmaine Blackwell, Brendan Hill or
ASU Organiser Colin Houghton | choughton@asuvictas.com.au
