Bega Valley Shire Council’s heartless dismissal

  • Council is heartless towards staff following bushfire tragedy
  • You deserve secure employment
  • Contact us if you feel you are being treated unfairly or are being incorrectly classified as a casual employee

Following the loss of his home to bushfires earlier this year, a USU member at Bega Valley Shire Council approached his management seeking support from his employer to gain more workplace flexibility with his work to support his family and rebuild his life, by limiting the waste sites he was required to work at after the loss of his home. Council’s response was rather than support their employee following the national tragedy that plagued the Bega area, his manager emailed him stating his employment would no longer be required by council and could return his keys.

This is an absolute outrage and a callous action taken by your employer, and shows little to no regard for the disaster and the loss suffered by our member. Our member was employed on a systematic casual basis, meaning he was rostered every week for three years. This is not the true definition of a casual with numerous court decisions across the nation reflecting this, where it has been recognised casuals employed this way are in fact recognised to have the same rights as permanent employees, and in turn the same protections from unfair dismissal. What concerns the union more is not only the lack of consideration for the members individual situation but a broader concern that this may be occurring with other workers at this council.

We have engaged in unfair dismissal proceedings on behalf of our member, and due to an unwillingness of your employer to settle this matter in a way that can support our member in his time of need, we are progressing this matter to trial before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

HAVE YOUR SAY!
Tell us your story

We seek the support of our members through this time, if you feel you are experiencing similar circumstances or have concerns around your status as a casual employee of through insecure work we want to hear from you. Contact your Organiser Aarron Vann on 0242 264 784. If you are not a member it is not too late to join. United we are strong.