Staff who walked off the job at Maitland City Council have been directed to return to work immediately.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission issued the directive to staff who took unprotected strike action on Friday morning.
Maitland City Council issue a statement shortly after 4pm that the Mount Vincent Road Waste Management Facility would reopen at 8.15am Saturday morning.
Council also reminded residents whose general waste bins were not collected on Friday to leave them out.
"Every effort will be made to collect those bins tomorrow, failing which they will be collected on Monday. All other Council services will operate as normal," the statement read.
The entire outdoor and depot workforce at Maitland City Council walked off the job on Friday morning with no indication of when they might return.
The unprotected strike involves the gardens staff and waste services leaving rubbish bins uncollected this morning.
“It’s in relation to the termination of a couple of team leaders,” United Services Union organiser Andrew Ryals said.
“This action it to do with the lack of procedural fairness around their dismissal.”
The action started 6.30am Friday.
“We hope to bring matters to a head soon,” Mr Ryals said.
“There’s been no determination on when they will return to work.”
Council issued a statement which said that it had recently terminated two employees after a thorough investigation of bullying and harassment allegations.
At the time of the statement council’s general manager David Evans said he had not been able to confirm that this was the reason for the strike.
Given the industrial action Council’s services will be disrupted including the collection and servicing of waste bins until the issue is resolved.
Residents whose bins would normally be serviced today and have not yet been collected should leave their bin out and it will be collected as soon as possible.
Recycling services will continue uninterrupted.
Council’s Mount Vincent Waste Management Facility will also be closed until the issue is resolved.
Maitland Riverlights Festival will proceed as planned despite strike action.
“It’s not going to affect how we conduct the festival,” council events coordinator Adam Franks said.
“All of the functions of Riverlights are on site or are brought in by third party operators.”
Even the clean up comes under the council’s events team.
“The bump-in and bump out is carried out by Maitland Events,” Mr Franks said.
More to come.
