Wingecarribee Shire Council: member frustration grows and actions escalate as council continues along path of poor decisions and inaction.

Pictured above: Frustrated members from Wingecarribee Shire Council gathered at the front steps of council.

In the last few months alone, members at Wingecarribee Shire Council have undertaken a 72 hour stop work, placed and upheld a vote of no confidence in the General Manager and at the time of writing, we have three separate matters before the commission.

Despite council’s inaction, our members at Wingecarribee remain committed to reaching a resolution with council.

To date, council has avoided, ignored or cancelled at the last minute all attempts made by the USU to resolve these issues.

Despite council’s inaction, our members remain determined to reach a resolution.

Issues at Wingecarribee include:

  • Several members trying to return to work after being on parental leave, only to find council has not made any arrangements to facilitate this
  • Members who have been given medical clearance to return to work on light duties after being injured at work having their requests denied.

On Thursday 19 March, at an all member report back meeting, our members voted to uphold the vote of no confidence against the General Manager. This was partly in response to a series of internal all staff emails council sent out containing misinformation and inaccuracies. After the union contacted the council, asking them to retract these emails and Fact Sheets and provide the correct information, council chose to only retract and correct their inaccurate Fact Sheet.

USU Organiser for Wingecarribee Shire Council, Rudi Oppitz, continues to work tirelessly alongside our delegates to hold council to account, resolve all issues and get Wingecarribee Shire Council closer to being a happy workplace.

Given how long a lot of these issues have been going on for, it is our hope that they are resolved soon – our members don’t deserve the added stress and anxiety that comes with uncertainty at work.

Grey skies and a potential downpour didn’t deter our members from meeting on the steps of council.