Latest Communication Releases

We held the third Agreement focus group session on Thursday 29 February 2024. The focus group is designed to help provide an employee voice to the Executive Team as we negotiate a new Agreement.

1. minutes of the third Agreement focus group session
2. powerpoint that the focus group used throughout the session

Members of the focus group considered topics based on their views and those of their colleagues and endeavoured to ‘walk in the shoes’ of the Executive Team.

We initially had a discussion around parental leave data that had been requested by the focus group.

We then moved on to discuss some key topics that City employees raised during initial feedback sessions in October 2023. For this session, we focussed on superannuation, compassionate leave and workplace flexibility. We compared each existing entitlement with other large local governments.  We then worked out some options for each entitlement and what the Executive Team would need to think about as they consider the options presented.

You can view the comparison entitlements for the other large local governments on the below links:

• Superannuation
• Compassionate Leave
• Workplace Flexibility

Group Work Notes can be viewed here – notes 1 and notes 2.

We ran out of time to look at personal/carer’s leave but will delve into this detail, along with salary considerations, at the next employee focus group meeting on Thursday 14 March 2024.

If you have any questions, please contact a member of the People & Culture team or a member of the employee focus group.

We held the second Agreement focus group session on Thursday 15 February 2024. The focus group is designed to help provide an employee voice to the Executive Team as we negotiate a new Agreement. View the:

• minutes of the second Agreement focus group session
• powerpoint that the focus group used throughout the session

Members of the focus group considered topics based on their views and those of their colleagues and endeavoured to ‘walk in the shoes’ of the Executive Team.

We initially talked through some housekeeping primarily being the use of the Agreement website. We then had a discussion around some employee turnover data that had been requested by the focus group.

We then moved on to discuss some key topics that City employees raised during initial feedback sessions in October 2023.

The first of these was annual leave. To help the discussion, we compared a list of conditions provided by other large local governments. We then worked out some options for annual leave and what the Executive Team would need to think about as they consider this idea.

We then did the same for paid parental leave:

• compared a list of conditions provided by other large local governments
• worked out options for paid parental leave and what the Executive Team would need to think about as they consider this idea.

Group Work Notes can be viewed here – notes 1, notes 2, notes 3, notes 4 and notes 5.

We also took the opportunity to introduce the next key topic, superannuation, which we will delve into in detail at the next employee focus group meeting on Thursday 29 February 2024.

We held the first Agreement focus group session on Thursday 1 February 2024. The focus group is designed to help provide an employee voice to the Executive Team as we negotiate a new Agreement. View the:

• minutes of the first Agreement focus group session
• powerpoint that the focus group used throughout the session

Members of the focus group considered topics based on their views and those of their colleagues. The group were also challenged to ‘walk in the shoes’ of the Executive Team.

We worked through the following activities:

• Setting ground rules for how the group will work together
• Understanding the political, economic, and social environment we would be negotiating in. View the feedback that the focus group brainstormed:
  • Economic
  • Political
  • Social

We then discussed the availability of public service holidays or end-of-year leave, which was a topic that City employees raised during initial feedback sessions in October 2023 (see group notes 1 and group notes 2). To help the discussion, we compared a list of conditions provided by other large local governments. We then worked out some options for public service holidays or end of year leave and what the Executive Team would need to think about as they consider this idea, which you can download to view.