More than 150 council staff are set to return to work shortly as the City of Ballarat introduces new measures to adapt to the threat of COVID-19.
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While most permanent staff were able to change working arrangements - including moving to remote working - there were 168 permanent City of Ballarat employees granted special leave after union intervention last month. They were unable carry out their jobs following the widespread shutdown of non-essential services last month.
The City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley has confirmed many of them would return to work as early as next week when new measures will be finalised. These include limiting staff to one person per vehicle, the set-up of several temporary depots, sourcing PPE products and training sessions to counter the spread of COVID-19.
Many have been redeployed into other areas of council such as meals on wheels and waste collection following the shutdown of customer-facing services including Ballarat Aquatic and Lifestyle Centre, the Art Gallery, town hall and libraries.
Ms Linley said: "Yes, due to the current restrictions we have no work for some staff to do, but we don't believe our ratepayers want us to pay staff to sit at home doing nothing - that would be financially irresponsible on our part."
She said the council had tried "its utmost" to support permanent staff by allowing them to access their leave entitlements until adjustments were made. "Most staff have opted to do this," she said.
In a wider statement, the City of Ballarat confirmed precautions were "nearly complete" and that "many of these affected staff will be able to return to work next week."
It means no permanent staff at the council have been stood down so far, nor is there any sign of following the lead of the City of Greater Geelong, which announced plans to stand down 576 employees earlier this month. In the metro area, Hume City Council has also stood down permanent employees.
The City of Greater Geelong was criticised in an open letter written by several local politicians, and the state government has since asked councils not to stand staff down. Councils were instead urged to apply for grants from a new $500 million Working for Victoria Fund to help those who had lost their jobs. One rural CEO said they now had "a lot" of applications in the pipeline.
Another council executive told The Courier that the sheer number of employees at the City of Greater Geelong - which is around double the size of the City of Ballarat - would make redeployment much harder.
Other municipalities in the immediate region confirmed a similar situation to the City of Ballarat. Councils at Hepburn Shire, Golden Plains Shire, Moorabool Shire, Pyrenees Shire all told The Courier no permanent members of staff had been stood down.
However, it has been a very different tale for casual staff. A total of 203 casual staff have been stood down by the City of Ballarat since the new measures have been brought in. A similar scenario has played out throughout the wider region, with all surrounding councils confirming casual staff had had their hours cut or been stood down altogether.
Casual staff do not have access to the JobKeeper scheme as it does not apply to local government, a situation the Golden Plains Shire CEO Eric Braslis described as "very disappointing".
One stood-down casual employee told The Courier council "had done the right thing" by giving two weeks' pay on dismissal but the longer-term outlook remained "worrying".
Ms Linley said the decision to stand down casual staff "was not taken lightly", and that they remained on the books and would be welcome back when the restrictions were lifted.
Our aim is for this to be a temporary arrangement only, and we hope that in the coming weeks or months, functions can resume as usual and that we will be able to have staff return to previous hours of work.
- Justine Linley
She also said she was grateful to staff for "adjusting so quickly" while encouraging the wider community to maintain social distancing measures while the council puts in place "a very different way of working".
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