Margot Giblin Municipal Affairs Citizen Reporter
Alderman Christie had assured the meeting that a complex and lengthy tendering process had been gone through, so why didn’t she support the decision?
Hobart City Council Open Meeting 27.11.06
Point of Interest
WAS that Alderman Helen Burnet’s lone voice saying No to the Hobart City Council granting a tender to Spectran Pty. Ltd. to provide supplementary labour for Council’s Civic Solutions Division?
‘Yes I did vote against it,’ Burnet told Tasmanian Times.
Alderman Christie had assured the meeting that a complex and lengthy tendering process had been gone through, so why didn’t she support the decision?
“Unlike the following motion that night, which was an arrangement with Lady Gowrie to hand over Family Day Care services and a good deal for the FDC providers, I was not convinced that the tender with Spectran was robustly scrutinised by Council.
“I believe that even with sub-contracting, council should be pursuing tenders with employers who will be offering good levels of rights and conditions for their workers.”
“Ms Burnet went on to say ‘I did not have the evidence that Spectran was offering that and therefore could not in all conscience, vote in support of awarding them the contract.
“I would like to see more of a checklist in future to ensure that we are engaging contractors who allow freedom of association, the right pay and
conditions, etc, or at least make some measure to do so, and I was not assured that was the case.
“Call me old fashioned …” she concluded.
Some might, but not the cleaners who got a ‘nothing to do with us’ response to their letter to Lord Mayor Rob Valentine requesting Council support for the Fair Deal For Cleaners Campaign in November. Nor would any of the 2000 plus who marched and cheered and called for the protection of workers rights at the Day of Action rally in Hobart on Thursday.
Alderman Burnet says she considers that anyone in a position to influence the provision of fair conditions for workers, whether directly or indirectly, should do just that.
