By Parker McKenzie
Seeking a three per cent pay rise, instead of the offered 1.8 per cent rise from Your Libraries, union members at Eastern Regional Libraries have begun industrial action and are also pursuing a minimum of three-hour shifts for casuals and minimum staffing levels to open branches.
The industrial action launched by members of the Australian Services Union will include interrupting or stopping work to remove name badges, attaching enterprise bargaining agreement campaign material or putting on union-related clothing, an indefinite ban on performing work in clothes that doesn’t have EBA campaign material or in non-union related clothes, waiving photocopying or printing charges by library members and voicing campaign messages.
Australian Services Union secretary Lisa Darmanian said workers at Eastern Regional Libraries who are union members have “stepped up action to get a fair deal.”
“Workers are Eastern Regional Libraries are determined to get a decent pay rise, a fair go for casual workers, and safety at their workplace,” she said.
“Members of the Australian Services Union want to reach agreement on the enterprise agreement and will continue to ramp up their protected industrial action until library management starts to listen.”
Other industrial actions will include handing out bookmarks about the campaign and putting campaign-related messages in the windows of library vehicles.
Ms Darmanian said library workers want two workers at small branches and three at large branches present during work hours due to safety concerns.
“Management at Eastern Regional Libraries can avoid highly disruptive strike action by negotiating with union members rather than dictating the terms of the enterprise agreement,” she said.
“Library workers love their work and the communities they work in, and library management has pushed them to the point of taking industrial action by refusing to listen to their legitimate concerns,” Ms Darmanin said.
Your Library is a beneficial enterprise with each of Maroondah, Knox and Yarra Ranges being represented on the board by two councillors each, with a corporate representative from each also appointed. It was created when Eastern Region Library Corporation was wound up for administrative reasons under the Local Government act 2020.
At a Knox City Council meeting on 27 June, Cr Yvonne Allred — who is on the board of Your Library — said the corporation had a $2 million surplus mainly due to reduced services during the Covid-19 pandemic, which will be placed in a reserve account and used to acquire, refurbish and maintain library facilities.
Requests to speak to a union member undertaking industrial action were rejected because it is not an approved industrial action.
Eastern Region Library Chief Executive Joseph Cullen was contacted for comment.
