Local Government COVID-19 Splinter Award
In a huge win for local government employees, those who are unfortunate enough to be stood down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic will be entitled to a higher rate of pay than those on the federal government's JobKeeper wage subsidy, as part of a deal approved by the state's Industrial Relations Commission.
The Local Government (COVID-19) Splinter (Interim) Award 2020 was implemented by Commissioner Murphy, with an operative date of 8 April 2020 (the date of the application), and a nominal expiry date of 7 April 2021.
A key feature of the Splinter Award is that it is ‘opt-in’ only, meaning it will only cover councils who choose to sign up to it. Already, an impressive 102 councils have agreed to be a party to this Award, which leaves only a small group of around 30 councils to sign up.
The coverage of the Award is able to be varied should a council choose to opt-in after the Award has been made, and the LGEA will be encouraging those councils who are yet to sign-up to do so.
The Splinter Award contains a host of protections for employee’s who have their workload impacted by COVID-19, however the Award will only be utilised where a Council has “no useful work” for an employee.
Councils party to the Splinter Award: