Noosa Council’s response to ongoing industrial action
Published on 30 April 2025
Noosa Council CEO Larry Sengstock has today advised unions that staff involved in further protected industrial action from Thursday 1 May will be subject to an unpaid lockout until Sunday night.
“I have notified the unions and our staff that any employee who is a member of the unions and takes protected industrial action from their first shift on Thursday will be asked to leave work and will not be paid during the period of the lockout,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate it has come to this, but while we respect an employee’s right to participate in the notified action, equally as an employer, we are taking the necessary steps under the legislation,” Mr Sengstock said.
“The impacts of the ongoing industrial action on the community have led us to making the difficult decision of taking firmer action,” he said.
Employees who take part in protected industrial action will be required to stay away from Council premises, return their commuter use vehicles and not utilise Council ICT and technology systems.
Employees locked out shall be required to recommence work duties at usual start times Tuesday 6 May 2025.
“We provided a revised pay offer last week of an additional half a per cent to take the total wage increase to 14 per cent over three years, which was rejected by the unions."
The CEO said it’s believed about 20 per cent of Council staff are involved in the protected industrial action.
“Much of our workforce continue to diligently fulfill their duties to keep operations going,” he said.
“This certified agreement aims to ensure job security, maintain existing services, and reward our staff during a challenging economic period. We also need to balance ratepayer money as wages have the potential to impact general rates,” he said
“The unions are fully aware that we don’t have a bottomless pit of funds and we have advised them that it’s not appropriate to use cash reserves to fund wage increases,” he said.
Mr Sengstock said in accordance with s.236 of the Industrial Relations Act 2016 the lockout doesn’t affect the continuity of employment for those staff.
Council respects an employee’s rights to participate in protected industrial action and it will not prejudice any employee because of their intention to take part in the notified action.
“I acknowledge that this will unfortunately further impact on service delivery, and we seek the community’s understanding at this time.
“We remain committed to finding a compromise,” Mr Sengstock said.
Council and the unions resume conciliatory talks with a meeting before the Queensland Industrial Relations Commissioner on Wednesday 7 May.
Noosa Council CEO Larry Sengstock discusses the lockout:
Updated response to unions claims:
Noosa Council CEO Larry Sengstock said the decision to adopt a lockout was largely because the partial protected action that had been accepted over the last few weeks was resulting in staff turning up for work on full pay but not undertaking any of their normal duties.
"The backlog in work had got to a point where we had to take this legislative-supported action to allow us to look at alternative methods of delivering the services that our community expect," he said.
Mr Sengstock said the reference that workers are losing two days’ pay is not entirely correct.
“Staff are free to exercise their right to take protected industrial action and not be paid or they can return to work and be paid, " he said.
"As for suggesting it is an extreme tactic, it is our right under the legislation and was only initiated because after offering an additional half a percent wage increase, it was flatly refused by the unions, and we don’t have another meeting scheduled until next week with the Commission.
"The current offer will add millions of dollars to an already tight operational budget," Mr Sengstock said