THE United Services Union has said it would be watching Shoalhaven City Council to ensure the rights of employees affected by staff cutbacks were upheld.
Council is looking to make savings of around $6.5 million a year through a major organisational restructure, reducing the number of divisions from six to four.
The major restructure will see jobs go in a raft of new cost saving initiatives.
While it is not known how many jobs will go, council has refused to rule out the possibility of redundancies.
Paul Wesley from the United Services Union said council had indicated it would adhere to the conditions of the Local Government Award during the consultation phase.
“We have been given an invitation to attend information sessions scheduled to occur over the next two weeks and we will be attending those meetings,” he said.
“It is a matter of participating in the process.
“We have requested a copy of the report the Blackadder Group has put together. We would like to see the recommendations and extent of possible job losses.
“But whether council will give it to us is another thing, but we have requested it.
“The proposal is to reduce the workforce and there are certain conditions under the award that have to be met and we are going to ensure that occurs.
“Council has committed to a full consultative process as required under the award and part of that is the invitation to attend the information sessions.
“They have said they are not going to use redundancies to reduce the workforce but the information we have been given is they could review operations with the view to tendering some services out, which is a concern.
“We will be watching the process.”
