No domestic garbage will be collected across the Central Coast on Thursday, June 2 and Friday, June 3 as a result of industrial action by local waste operators.
Residents in Narara, Lisarow, Gosford, East Gosford, Point Frederick, Erina and Springfield will not have their bins emptied on Thursday, June 2. Suburbs that will be impacted on Friday, June 3 are Avoca, North Avoca, Terrigal, Wamberal and Forresters Beach. Waste operators were granted a meeting with Central Coast Council administrator, Mr Ian Reynolds and CEO Mr Rob Noble on Wednesday, June 1 but failed to come to an agreement. They were seeking council’s commitment to including a pay rate and job security measures in its tender documents for its next waste contract. A media statement from Central Coast Council said: “The current waste collection contract, held by local firm Remondis, is due to expire on January 31, 2018. “Council is currently developing specifications for a contract to run after February 1, 2018 and will run a public tender process to ensure Council and the community receive best value service delivery for their waste needs.”
Prior to Mr Reynold’s agreeing to meet with the workers, the TWU NSW acting secretary, Mr Richard Olsen, said industrial action that would leave waste on the kerbsides across the Central Coast was scheduled to start from Thursday, June 2 as local waste operators acted to safeguard their jobs and their ability to support their families. Mr Olsen was speaking after almost 70 local waste operators voted to take indefinite industrial action from June 2, which will mean no household or business pickups across the Central Coast. “Local waste operators love the Coast and they love their work, but they’re sick of being messed around by politicians and out-of-town administrators,” Mr Olsen said. “For months the mayors of Gosford and Wyong Council told them they didn’t have the power to make a decision on the tender of the new waste contract. “Now that the new Administrator is in place, he has the power to put local jobs, local work and the safety of the local community into the new tender for the waste contract. “But he’s not given any guarantees on this. “These are Central Coast locals, with families to support and mortgages to pay. “They are seeking guarantees for local jobs on the Central Coast and safeguards in the new tender. “We want to make sure dodgy outside operators don’t come barging in, putting their unsafe trucks on our streets.”
Local waste operator and TWU representative, Mr Ian Hankinson, said that they don’t want to inconvenience their neighbours and the community but had been left with no choice. “This is our community, we all live here and love the Coast. “The last thing we want to do is inconvenience local families and local businesses, but we’ve been backed into a corner by successive local Councils,” Mr Hankinson said. “We’ve all got families to support and we won’t get paid when we go on strike, but this is about making sure locals, like us, still have jobs in a year’s time. “We hope the community of the Coast understands where we are coming from.”
The workers are concerned that if a new tender is put out without safeguards, there would be nothing to stop outside contractors undercutting Remondis on wages, conditions and safety standards. “Remondis is in a difficult position because they have to tender at our current hourly rate but others can come in and undercut them.” Mr Hankinson said the NSW premier could step in, as he did to resolve a similar dispute involving bus drivers in Western Sydney, to resolve the issue for waste operators. “These issues apply to all services that have been outsourced on 10- year contracts because they don’t give workers job security,” he said. Mr Hankinson said households impacted by the industrial action should still put their bins out for collection. “We plan to return to work on Monday (June 6) and will catch up as quickly as possible,” Mr Hankinson said. He said Mr Reynolds and Mr Noble had undertaken to look into the issues raised by workers at the meeting. “They were both very nice blokes and I think we can get something, but it is going to take time,” he said.
Media statement, May 31, 2016 Central Coast Council media Media release, May 30, 2016 Rachel Kim, Transport Workers Union NSW Interviews, May 31 and Jun 1, 2016 Ian Hankinson, TWU representative Jackie Pearson, journalist