Council & Business
5 September, 2025
Pay negotiations continue
Central Goldfields Shire Council workers are considering protected industrial action as talks regarding better conditions and pay continue to drag on.
The Australian Services Union (ASU) and Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation met with Central Goldfields and Ararat Rural City councils late last month to further discuss a multi-employer agreement covering both councils, which would be a first for the sector.
Ararat has a wage offer of four percent, 3.5 percent, 3.5 percent or a flat dollar increase of $55 in the first year, $50 thereafter.
According to the ASU however, the Central Goldfields have dug their heels in at three percent per year with no flat dollar increase, after staff received a below sector average increase of 1.5 percent in their last enterprise agreement.
The ASU have also claimed Central Goldfields have reneged on previously agreed items such as addressing sick leave inequities and improving the entitlement for childcare educators in their first year of work.
Local council staff met last week to consider protected industrial action in a push to increase the full-time wage of council’s lowest paid workers, which currently sits at an average $65,000 per year.
“Workers at Central Goldfields Shire have voted to take part in multi-employer bargaining, and they deserve respect from council management in their fight for better wages and conditions,” ASU secretary Tash Wark said.
“For council to step back from previously agreed conditions is a betrayal of their employees, and the fact workers are considering industrial action for the first time in memory speaks volumes to the sense of disillusion and anger at Central Goldfields Shire.
“It is a vindictive and retrograde effort by the council’s management.”
While declining to comment broadly on the issue, Central Goldfields Shire Council CEO Peter Harriott said enterprise agreement negotiations are continuing.
“We’ve got a position on a range of matters and this disagreement is typical of enterprise agreement negotiations — we’re working our way through it,” he said.
“These negotiations are complicated because it’s a joint agreement with Ararat, Central Goldfields, staff groups and various unions which is new to us and new to the industry.
“Yes, we’ve got some differences, but I’m sure in time — and I’d prefer that be sooner rather than later — we’ll resolve these matters and move on.
“I think there needs to be some understanding that there are differences between municipalities — we here in Central Goldfields are taking a deliberate stance to put the place back into a financially sustainable environment.”
A multi-employer agreement was proposed by the ASU well over 12 months ago, with the Central Goldfields Shire Council contesting the agreement before a full bench of the Fair Work Commission.
Later, the matter was also heard in the Federal Court — with both rejecting council’s arguments that an enterprise agreement was contrary to the public interest, dismissing the appeal.