A decision to terminate rather than stand down 150 casual employees during the coronavirus crisis has been defended by Maribyrnong council’s chief executive.
CEO Stephen Wall told last week’s council meeting that it had been the “very best” decision to enable casuals, who were ineligible for the JobKeeper scheme, the ability to seek government support.
He said the job losses resulted from the federal government’s decision to close a number of customer-facing facilities, including aquatic and community centres and libraries.
“Not knowing when this COVID-19 pandemic will be over, or when our facilities can reopen and we can again re-engage our casual staff, it was decided that ceasing our engagement with the casual staff gave those people the very best prospect to access government support,” Mr Wall said.
“I think it’s also worth noting … that local governments – councils – are not eligible for JobKeeper payments. That might have changed our view on how we dealt with our casual staff.”
Mr Wall said the council had done its best to honour existing rosters in play when the facilities were shut and was doing its “very, very best ” to keep permanent staff employed.
“When the current restrictions are lifted and we are able to open our facilities again, we will be making phone calls to all of our former casual staff and asking them to come back,” he said.
“We have a list of casual staff that we can call on when, and if, hours are available.
“So, again, not an ideal situation. We believed we were doing the very best thing for our casual staff to enable them to seek any government support that was available to them.”
The Australian Services Union has called for a federal government direction to local councils to retain all current full-time, part-time and casual employees.
It also called for a review of the decision to leave councils out of the JobKeeper arrangements.
