Legislation passed through Parliament recently changed the legal status of local government, releasing council workers from federal industrial laws.
The only exception is employees of Brisbane City Council, which was not part of the council reform and amalgamation process.
The change means local government workers are free from the effects of WorkChoices. It also gives stability and flexibility to councils across the state.
Before WorkChoices, white collar local government employees were covered under federal jurisdiction while blue collar employees had state awards and agreements. WorkChoices moved the blue collar employees into the Federal system.
The new Federal Government has indicated it will exclude state and local government employees from the Federal system. It is expected this will occur in 2010.
Returning workers to the state system before the local government reform changeover day of 15 March 2008, allowed state law to apply to the transfer of employees, the protection of their entitlements, and the transmission of their industrial instruments.
These changes will not affect the pay rates and other entitlements of local government employees nor remove their coverage by an industrial instrument.
To ensure this, amendments to the Industrial Relations Act 1999 have been included in the legislation to convert the relevant federal industrial instruments to state industrial instruments of the same type (e.g. federal awards become state awards).
In addition, the pay rates and other entitlements of local government employees are explicitly preserved so that there will be no change to the pay an employee receives as a result of the new legislation.
Changing the corporate status of local government does not affect its existing rights and liabilities, such as contractual obligations.
Local government will retain its existing powers under section 36 of the Local Government Act 1993 to enter into contracts: acquire, hold, deal with and dispose of property; charge for services and facilities; and do all things necessary to enable them to exercise their jurisdiction as local governments.
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Employment and Industrial Relations) 2006
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