New laws to affect Council staff contracts

Central Coast Council has refused to say how many of its senior staff are affected by the new State Government laws on executive contracts.

The State Government has amended the Local Government Act 1993, removing the ability for councils to employ senior council executives under statutory contracts.

This amendment means councils, including Central Coast Council, can no longer enter into new fixed term contracts for senior staff.

When existing contracts expire, those staff involved will transfer to award-based employment under the Local Government (State) Award.

Coast Community News asked Council how many staff were affected, when the current contracts expired and when would all staff be on the new contracts.

“The number of staff employed on senior staff contracts will be disclosed in Council’s Annual Report,” Council replied.

It said any further questions about the amendment should be directed to the NSW Government.

Under the new legislation ultimately the only employee at any NSW Council on a senior staff contract will be the GM/CEO.

Central Coast resident Kevin Brooks, who has commented on the need to improve senior management performance in submissions to the ongoing Parliamentary Inquiries into Local Government, described the change as “a retrograde step” that will undermine flexibility and make executives “even less accountable” for performance.

“The executives we are talking about here can be earning around $300,000 to $400,000 per year,” he said.

“At that level, there needs to be accountability for performance.

“It’s not in the interests of councils or ratepayers to entrench a cohort of fat cats counting down their days to retirement with little incentive to perform and almost impossible to get rid of.”

He said that quality of management was already a problem across the local government sector.

“There is a limited supply of high-calibre candidates within the sector, and mediocrity can rise to the top,” he said.

“It will now be harder to address this by encouraging more applications from outside the sector to access a wider range of skills and financial disciplines and drive much needed change and innovation.”

Brooks also feared “conflicts of interest” in giving award employment rights to executives.

“When IPART sets the annual rate peg, it calculates how much Council costs have increased over the previous year, including increases in salary costs, and feeds these into the rate peg,” he said.

“Salary increases negotiated between councils and unions are therefore passed straight through to ratepayers.

“This raises questions about conflicts of interest if executive salary increases are determined through the same award negotiations.

“This may create yet more upward pressure on rates.”

As a result of the amendments, as of September 1 councils will no longer have the option to determine positions within their organisation structure as “senior staff positions” and to employ the holders of those positions under the statutory contract approved by the “departmental chief executive” of the Office of Local Government (OLG).

In determining the organisation structure of a council, the governing body is required to approve the resources to be allocated to the employment of staff after consulting the general manager, and the general manager is in turn responsible for determining the organisation structure of the council after consulting with the governing body.

Subject to the transitional arrangements, the amendments will ultimately see the terms and conditions of employment of all council staff other than the general manager, regulated under an award or enterprise agreement approved by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

Merilyn Vale