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Speaker 1: Now we know that yesterday apparently two thirds of Darwin

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Speaker 1: City Council staff voted down this proposed enterprise agreement. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about it is Scott Cowan from the Australian

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Speaker 1: Services Union.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Scott.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Scott.

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Speaker 2: What exactly were our council workers voting on.

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Speaker 3: So, I've heard it was Friday the vote came here,

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Speaker 3: I came so there was a We've been negotiating along

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Speaker 3: with other unions of the City of Darwin throughout the

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Speaker 3: last six months or so for a new enterprise agreement,

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Speaker 3: but unfortunately management decided to put a proposed agreement out

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Speaker 3: to vote that didn't have the endorsement of the ASU,

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Speaker 3: the United Workers Union or the AMWU, and we encourage

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Speaker 3: our members to vote, know, So it was pleasing to

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Speaker 3: see that two thirds of cancil workers supported the union

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Speaker 3: position and rejected the officer management on Friday.

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Speaker 1: So I understand that they were offered a two percent

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Speaker 1: increase their pay, So.

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Speaker 3: It was a complicated deal that management was putting. But

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Speaker 3: the ongoing wage increases for the longer term employees would

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Speaker 3: have been two percent a year.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, right, And what are they after, Scott?

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Speaker 3: Well, we had I think, you know, particularly given cost

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Speaker 3: of living increases and I heard you talk before about

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Speaker 3: how expensive petrol is, so I'm sure your listeners could understand.

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Speaker 3: We had quite a modest claim for a three percent

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Speaker 3: wage increase per annum and for essentially a rollover of

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Speaker 3: the current agreement with some additional conditions. Unfortunately, management of

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Speaker 3: the City of Darwin sought to make some widespread structural

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Speaker 3: changes to the agreement that would have seen significant cuts

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Speaker 3: to employment conditions. So it wasn't just pay that our

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Speaker 3: members were voting on. There were provisions in the enterprise

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Speaker 3: Agreement that were sought to be removed that an ADU

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Speaker 3: would have threatened job security, would have reduced redundancy entitlements,

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Speaker 3: and it would have changed the rules in terms of

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Speaker 3: a fair, fair set of play, things like discipline, reaction,

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Speaker 3: woman's management, to make sure that's a fair process in place.

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Speaker 3: So it wasn't just pay.

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Speaker 2: Was the other conditions part of it.

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Speaker 3: The editions were also vital important for us, Scott.

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Speaker 2: How many staff are we talking about here at the council?

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Speaker 3: Oh, I can't remember the numbers, to be honest with you.

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Speaker 3: At the City of Darwin, but there'll be in the

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Speaker 3: order of hundreds of employees.

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Speaker 2: And where to from here, Well.

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Speaker 3: We were notified by management of the boat on Friday.

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Speaker 3: All we've been told so far is that their current

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Speaker 3: offers being withdrawn. We don't have an alternate offer from

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Speaker 3: them yet, but we'll be looking to meet with management

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Speaker 3: as soon as we can in the next few weeks

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Speaker 3: to continue our negotiations and hopefully this message sense of

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Speaker 3: you know, this message from staff sends a strong signal

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Speaker 3: to management that they need to improve their offer and

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Speaker 3: not put an agreement to vote that cuts conditions, and

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Speaker 3: put an agreement to vote that has a fair wage increase,

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Speaker 3: particularly given the cost of living increase just going up

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Speaker 3: and up at the moment for our members.

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Speaker 1: Well, Scott, please do keep us up today, let us

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Speaker 1: know how things progress. I really appreciate you having your

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Speaker 1: chat today.

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Speaker 3: No worries. Thanks for your tom.

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Speaker 2: Thank you