Through the Industrial Commission process, Kiama Council and the staff’s unions have come to an agreement for stepped increases in salary grades (or extra leave in some cases) for all staff this year.

The stepped increases will be backdated to 1 July, and will increase Council’s operational deficit by $256,000 this financial year. This will bring the projected deficit to $3 million.

“This was an industrial dispute and this is the best negotiated decision that all the parties could get to,” says CEO Jane Stroud.

“I’m told it was the first time in about 25 years that anybody has successfully mounted an argument of incapacity to pay in local government.”

Last year, despite the financial pressures, all employees were given a 0.5 per cent pay increase without any approval from the Industrial Commission.

“After twenty years operating under the same protocol, we are developing a new salary system and a suite of human resource policies and procedures that will hopefully allow the organisation to have much clearer and fairer human resource rules,” she says.

Ms Stroud explains the old system lacks clarity on progression and ties annual performance reviews to financial reward – with only 25 per cent of the staff eligible to receive it each year.

“No performance indicators were developed for last year, so I felt it was unfair to go that way last June,” she says.

“I am looking to develop a fairer and more modern system.

“The whole business has changed over the last 20 years.”

Current staff will have to elect to go under the new protocol.