Action: Wollondilly Council staff held stop work meetings last week and on Tuesday morning to discuss the report. Picture: Joshua Bartlett
Union members have lodged a vote of no confidence in Wollondilly Council’s chief executive officer Luke Johnson after reading a summary of a report which states that no culture of workplace bullying or harassment exists at the council.
The report, produced by workplace lawyer Brooke Pendlebury, was ordered following the death of former employee David ‘Harry’ Wilson.
Mr Wilson, of Bargo, had lodged several complaints about bullying and harassment at work prior to his death.
Union spokesman Rudi Oppitz received a full copy of the redacted report on Monday.
Mr Oppitz scheduled a stop work meeting with union members at 9am yesterday where he informed staff about the findings of the report.
He said staff also had the chance to have their say on the report and vote on whether strike action would be taken.
“Union members passed a series of resolutions at the meeting including a vote of no confidence in the Pendlebury report, a vote of no confidence in the chief executive (Luke Johnson) and a vote of no confidence in two other executive staff members of Wollondilly Council,” Mr Oppitz said.
“Staff also passed a resolution to have council conduct meetings with the union to discuss the investigation.”
Mr Oppitz said union members decided against strike action at this point in time.
“Given it is so close to Christmas we will schedule the meeting with council early in the new year,” he said.
“I am pleased we have a path going forward to settle the matter once and for all, I am pleased we were able to gain access to the report and now we will wait for the coroner’s report into Mr Wilson’s death.”
Wollondilly mayor Judith Hannan said councillors were finally allowed to read a full copy of the redacted report at an extraordinary meeting last week.
“The only things redacted in the report were names and personal information,” she said.
“It took me about two hours to read the whole thing.
“It found that there was no systemic culture of bullying at council.”
Cr Hannan said councillors had a lengthy discussion after reading the report and it was decided that the findings should be made public.
“We made the unanimous decision to release a summary to staff and the public after United Services Union representatives have read the report,” she said.
