Tuesday night’s Hobsons Bay Council meeting collapsed in disarray after councillors were split over a decision to outsource Altona Meadows and Altona North early learning centres for 170 children.
Earlier, concerned parents had met with Australian Services Union organisers, who later converged on the council chambers.
The decision to outsource was made in-camera or behind closed doors. Cr Tony Briffa had been overseas at the time, last night’s meeting heard.
Cr Luba Grigorovitch told the meeting that councillors who voted to outsource – understood by the Weekly to have been a unanimous decision by those present – “were not well enough informed about wages and other variables”.
She moved an urgent motion to defer the outscourcing pending “proper and thorough community consultation”, saying that given most childcare workers were women, a wage cut would be “a slap in the face for 52 per cent of the population”.
Cr Briffa was the only councillor to support the motion to block the move.
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The Weekly was told 80 childcare staff had to reapply for their jobs and if successful, would retain their pay but only until their current enterprise agreement ran out in 2016.
Councillors Colleen Gates and Peter Hemphill voted with mayor Sandra Wilson to continue plans to contract out the centres, while Paul Morgan abstained from voting and Angela Altair had left earlier due to family commitments.
In a rare scene, usually rival councillors Briffa and Grigorovitch, who unsuccessfully voted to stop the move, were seen shaking hands at the meeting’s close.
Councillors Hemphill and Wilson declined to comment.
Cr Wilson had said was inequitable to other ratepayers for the council to keep the centres in-house.
“We needed to find a more sustainable way to have good quality childcare and that is why we decided to stop directly managing these two childcare centres and lease them out, as we do the other 18 in the municipality – and as many other councils have done as well,” Cr Wilson had said before the meeting in a statement to the Weekly.
“The tenders will only be open to not-for-profit organisations to make sure the children continue to come first.
“We’ll subsidise the new managers to pay the higher wages of the staff until 2016 when our current workplace agreement runs out.
“By moving to this other model would mean the council will have an additional $300,000 to use on other services.
“So we’re making this decision to be fair to all the people we are responsible for in Hobsons Bay.”
ASU women’s officer Jane Karslake said the decision desserted families and workers.
“Cr Wilson has said that this decision is based on cost saving, but where does council intend to save money?
“The bottom line is council wants to spend less on wages, which will translate into a loss of service for the children of Altona
“Childcare is one of the most important ways Councils can invest in communities.”
“Hobsons Bay mayor Sandra Wilson has said that the environment in childcare delivery has changed, citing the Early Learning Framework and National Competition policy.
“The ASU believes these arguments are bogus and suggest that the decision has been poorly considered.”
