The United Services Union (USU) has slammed the City of Newcastle over its questionable and inconsistent recruitment process for two newly created Executive Manager roles at the Civic Theatre and City Hall, positions reportedly valued at over $200,000 per annum each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USU Official Luke Hutchinson said the process lacked transparency, fairness, and any genuine merit-based selection which is seemingly in breach of the Local Government Act and Council\u2019s own policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a slap in the face to the hundreds of casual workers who keep these venues running,\u201d Mr Hutchinson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOver 70% of staff at the Civic Theatre and City Hall are employed casually, many are young, lower-paid workers who\u2019ve dedicated years to these spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYet Council appears to be quietly handing out permanent, high-paying roles to select individuals without a proper process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Casualisation is a big issue amongst our venue staff, they’d love to have permanent or permanent part-time roles but the Council insists they must stay casual, but here we have a situation where people are getting permanent full time roles on big money with no due process, it’s unfair and it doesn’t pass the pub test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The USU is demanding answers after Council failed to advertise the roles externally, instead conducting a brief six-day internal \u201cExpression of Interest (EOI)\u201d process overseen by a single executive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The union says this contradicts previous Council practices where external advertising was deemed essential to attract a suitable pool of applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCouncil\u2019s hypocrisy is staggering,\u201d Mr Hutchinson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve insisted on external advertising for other roles, including lower-paid ones, but now they\u2019re bypassing that entirely for senior positions. It reeks of favouritism and undermines the principles of equal opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Union has raised concerns that the EOI process is merely a formality, designed to rubber-stamp pre-selected appointments. With no formal consultation or reporting to the USU, the union is now preparing to escalate the matter to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a union issue, it\u2019s a community issue,\u201d Mr Hutchinson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur theatres and venues thrive because of passionate, hardworking staff. They deserve respect, transparency, and a fair go, not backroom deals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The USU calls on the City of Newcastle to halt the current process and recommit to a fair, open, and merit-based recruitment approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Services Union (USU) has slammed the City of Newcastle over its questionable and inconsistent recruitment process for two newly created Executive Manager roles at the Civic Theatre and City Hall, positions reportedly valued at over $200,000 per annum each. USU Official Luke Hutchinson said the process lacked transparency, fairness, and any genuine merit-based … Continue reading “Council\u2019s Secret Appointments Spark Outrage Amid Casual Workforce Crisis”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34005,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34004\/revisions\/34005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}