Council workers’ jobs ‘have become unrecognisable’

What was once thought of as a rewarding, stable, albeit lower-paid profession is now seeing increasing demands and funding gaps shrinking workforces at an alarming rate.

Modern workers face a productivity crisis in which they are being asked to do more with less, and council workers are now no exception.

According to the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), occupational shortages now present a significant constraint on councils. Of the 280 councils consulted as part of its Local Government Skills Audit and Review of the Uptake and Utility of the LGA Local Government Training Package National Report, launched with Public Skills Australia, 83 per cent have experienced persistent vacancies.

In a joint statement from ALGA and Public Skills Australia, ALGA president Mayor Matt Burnett said: “Building a sustainable local government workforce is not just a council issue. It is essential to the long-term prosperity, resilience and liveability of communities across the country.”

The report also pointed towards the increasingly complex operating environment councils face, with an ALGA spokesperson telling HR Leader: "Council work has become more complex and demanding in recent years, with employees expected to respond to higher community expectations, expanding regulatory responsibilities, digital transformation, housing and infrastructure pressures, and more frequent climate and emergency events."

HR Leader spoke with Tash Wark, Victoria/Tasmania secretary at the Australian Services Union, about the changing nature of council work and the impact on workers.

According to Wark, “falling wages and growing insecurity mean the reality of their jobs [is] changing … they’re not able to keep doing more with less”.

“For too many public service workers in 2026, their jobs have become unrecognisable. They’ve always worked hard because they’ve loved their jobs and they’ve felt the community loves them right back,” she said.

An ALGA spokesperson also noted that councils often have difficulty filling roles against private-sector salaries, meaning many council employees are covering broader roles, and dealing with increased workloads and a limited workforce capacity - all while councils face pressure to maintain service.

Wark agreed that “there’s a real sense that workers need to do more with less”, noting greater populations needing more complex services and a valuation of work that is not keeping pace with technological advancement.

“All of this is being done as the cost of living surges, but their wages go backwards in real terms,” she said.

Further to recent coverage of ongoing industrial action by Victorian local government workers, which saw a second 24-hour strike and march to Parliament House on 17 June, union and local government representatives gathered at Parliament House on 24 June in a joint campaign for fairer sector funding.

In a group statement from the Local Government NSW president, mayor Darcy Byrne, ASU national secretary Emeline Gaske, and United Services Union (USU) NSW secretary Graeme Kelly OAM, a joint call was made to increase Commonwealth financial assistance grants to 1 per cent of federal taxation revenue.

Byrne said: “We come from different backgrounds and political stripes, but we are all standing as one to demand that the Federal Parliament act to prevent councils going out the back door.”

“In regional communities in particular, there is simply not enough funding for basic services to be maintained. That’s why we have taken this unprecedented step to force the Parliament to act on this crisis.”

Gaske said: “Council workers keep Australian communities running every single day … They collect our bins, run our libraries, maintain our roads and support communities through floods and fires.”

Kelly said: “Restoring the 1 per cent benchmark is the single most important thing Canberra can do for our local government.”

On the ongoing pay negotiations, Wark told HR Leader: “Our members do essential work every single day across eight Melbourne councils. Yet they’ve spent six months at the bargaining table without receiving a single pay offer, all while their wages have fallen up to 12 per cent behind in real terms since 2021.”

Wark also cited an ongoing concern that workers are being priced out of the communities they serve; as reported, this echoes the sentiment of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, as covered by HR Leader’s sister brand, Accountants Daily.

“Rate capping has become an excuse for inaction. Councils cannot claim to be bargaining in good faith while offering workers nothing at all,” Wark said.

“The time is up for councils to get with the times, give workers a real wage offer, and one that lets them keep doing this vital work and receiving the support they need to do it.”

According to the ASU, the City of Melbourne agreed to abolish its two-tiered pay increment model, a decision that will see all workers on an annual incremental pay progression.

In its sixth multi-employer bargaining meeting on 30 June, negotiations continued on dispute resolution, delegates’ rights, vacancy management, gender affirmation leave, reproductive health leave, and parental leave.

More to come.

Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make HR Leader a preferred news source on Google.