By Laura Wakely
MORE THAN 500 Brimbank City Council workers could walk off the job if the council does not stop contracting out services.
A petition with more than 440 signatures was lodged with council last week objecting to them contracting out maintenance work at the Keilor Golf Course.
Australian Services Union organiser Russell McGregor said workers were worried the move could set a precedent for all jobs offered by council staff.
“It’s a flow-on affect,” Mr McGregor told Star.
“It’ll affect the mechanics, because they don’t have to service the machines, it’ll affect administration, because there’s no admin to do down there.
“People just want to have some job security.”
At a council meeting last week CEO Nick Foa said the council had not made any decision about contracting out maintenance at the golf course.
“Should council make that decision… those council staff will be guaranteed jobs,” Mr Foa said.
General Manager of Governance and Community Relations Helen Morrissey said the management of the golf course is currently contracted out and council has decided to “test the market” for the management and maintenance components as a package.
“On this basis council had advised staff that we will test the market place for maintenance and management services and compare against Council provided services.” Ms Morrissey said.
She said the “assertion” that the contracting was done to cut jobs “is wrong”.
“Our commitment is to provide best value to the community; this requires us to conduct service delivery reviews,” Ms Morrissey said.
“On some occasions this may mean a change in the way the service is delivered, such as the case in the provision of Youth Services which up to last year was provided by a contractor and is now provided directly by Council staff.”
She said council had increased staff numbers from 630 full-time workers to 740 over the past four years.
But Mr McGregor said council could only redeploy so many staff into one service before they were overstaffed and would have to cut jobs.
“We have to keep up the fight,” he said.
“It’s not hard for this CEO to guarantee you job security.
“We will defeat this CEO, we will defeat.”
The union was expected to meet with Mr Foa today.
