The City's CEO and Mayor have written an open letter to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews today, seeking his personal intervention to help council workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to facility closures under directions from the State, 576 permanent and casual City employees are left without a place to work.
The City initially provided these workers with two-weeks' special pay, redeployment opportunities and extended leave entitlements.
Following conversations with councillors and employees, as well as representation from local politicians, it was decided to provide an additional two weeks' regular pay to impacted permanent employees. This support will cost the Geelong ratepayer community a further $450,000.
During this two-week period, we will continue to seek to redeploy as many staff as possible into other available roles. However, employees that are unable to be redeployed will have to access their leave again after this period, if we are not provided support from the state government.
In the letter, the City urges the state government to provide a support package that will allow them to retain these workers.
It is simply unsustainable for the Geelong community to pay $450,000 per fortnight for employees who don't have a place to work.
As local council employees, workers at the City's leisure, visitor and arts facilities are ineligible for the federal government's JobKeeper payments. This is despite other people employed in similar roles in private businesses being eligible for these payments.
The federal government has made it clear that support for local councils must come from the state government.
The State Government "Working for Victoria fund" does not provide us with support to retain our employees.
The following statements to be attributed to City of Greater Geelong CEO Martin Cutter:
For most organisations impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, the JobKeeper payment is an excellent solution for keeping staff engaged in businesses during this time.Unfortunately, local council employees are ineligible for this payment - meaning 576 hard-working people in our region miss out.
We need the state government to help us retain our workers and be ready to get our community back on its feet as quickly as we can.
As the local council we have a duty to manage ratepayers' money responsibly. These necessary facility closures have placed us in a very difficult position as we weigh up our ability to support our employees while continuing to provide vital community services.
Now, more than ever it is time for all levels of government to work together.
The following statements to be attributed to City of Greater Geelong Mayor Stephanie Asher:
We urge the state government to rectify the inequity and provide local councils with appropriate support to retain our employees.This will allow us to keep our highly-valued, vital workforce employed and engaged with our organisation and community.
As the local council, we are doing what we can to support our community and local businesses, including our extensive business support package. These measures include fee refunds, reduction of rent in City buildings, expert business mentoring and free on-street parking in the CBD.
Council is committed to doing what we can to get our community through this incredibly tough time – and we will get through it.
We are asking the state government to get behind us as we do our best to support the Greater Geelong community through this difficult and unprecedented time.
