Toowoomba Regional Council - We’re worth more.

The Services Union met with the Council again last Friday for further Certified Agreement negotiations. After months of delays and shifting of goalposts, the Council now seem to want to push things along. We won’t be rushed into deciding on your wages and conditions until you are satisfied with an agreement that you deserve.

Our claim to introduce a No Forced Redundancy provision which is a protection that outdoor staff have was rejected by the Council. Its response was “we have to be able to review the size and shape of the organisation and we cannot say there won’t be forced redundancies in the future”. This raises serious questions for our members and undermines the trust we have placed in the Council and the stability we expect in our employment. Our members already do more with less due to the significant number of staff vacancies.

Our community expect that the Council will be adequately resourced to continue to provide the services they expect. 

It’s clear the Council considers you to be a commodity and doesn’t want you to receive any more than 6% in the first year which is great if you compare it to previous agreements. The Council is hedging its bets on you accepting an agreement that you’re not happy with. 

Things are different to previous years and staff have experienced what happens when they do nothing and rely on the Council to take care of things. Your colleagues have been joining and continue to join our Union each day. Remember to show your colleagues how low wages at Toowoomba Regional Council  are and ask them to join here . 

Next steps

Your current agreement expires on 19 June, less than three weeks away. We're asking members to attend meetings to decide the next steps on Thursday 13 June.

Details are as follows:

Meeting 1 (in person)
1pm - 1:45pm
Outside the Toowoomba Library

Meeting 2 (online via MS Teams)
5.30pm - 6:15pm
If you have not received your link to join the online meeting, please contact us as soon as possible.

Please direct questions to your workplace delegates: Julie-Anne Crosby, Naomi Scott, Adam Purves, Ian Burrows and Robert Relvas.