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14 MARCH, 2023
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Celebrate in harmony Melton council is hosting a Harmony Day event, and is inviting residents to join in by celebrating the many different cultures that make the municipality a vibrant and diverse place to live. Since 1999, Harmony Day has been observed annually as a national day on March 21 to celebrate togetherness through diversity. On Saturday, March 18, communities across Melton will come together at the Willows Historical Park, Reserve Road, Melton, to celebrate Harmony Day 2023. From 11am-3pm Melton council will host a free event packed with kids’ activities, cultural performances, multicultural food, and more to enjoy with family and friends. Mayor Lara Carli said Harmony Day is a “celebration of how we are stronger together – and how our community belongs to everyone, and everyone belongs here with us”. “We celebrate the unique values, skills and customs people from diverse backgrounds bring to our city. We come together to learn more about each other and enjoy the special traditions and experiences that all our residents bring to our city,” she said. Dongling Ye, Vonivate Driu, Rosanglian ThangAw and Barsha KC Rajbhandary. (Damjan Janevski) 322935_07
Melton industrial action By Liam McNally Melton council employees have commenced protected industrial action to protest staff shortages and wages. Over the coming weeks Australian Services Union (ASU) members at the council will introduce indefinite or periodic bans on a number of council activities including school-time parking patrols, issuing notices to comply, and after-hours stray dog pickups, as well as attaching union campaign materials on walls, shelves, and in areas normally used for council signage.
ASU branch decretary Lisa Darmanin said union members at the council “love serving their community, but can’t provide adequate assistance to the public if they keep losing co-workers”. “Melton staff are some of the lowest paid of any growth-area council in Victoria, with workers doing the same duties at other councils earning up to 10.5 per cent higher in some instances,” she said. “When wages and conditions are better somewhere else, workers leave, and the ratepayers of Melton are left without proper services and staffing. Employees in
customer service, libraries and community focused staff are leaving Melton to work for surrounding councils because they know they will be paid properly and that impacts on the community.” According to the ASU, five senior members of the Melton library services have resigned in the last six months, leaving just one employee to cover their work across two sites. The ASU said there are gaps in support staff across the workforce, leaving the Melton community under-resourced, and the union thinks the Melton community deserves better. Over the next few weeks, union members
will be wearing union stickers, handing out fliers, and stopping work at certain times. “This will send a message to council that they need to treat their staff better, to ensure we can keep serving our community,” Ms Darmanin said. Melton council chief executive Roslyn Wai said council has “just completed engagement with staff to understand workplace sentiment around the wage and entitlements offer made at the end of last year”. “We look forward to returning to enterprise agreement negotiations in good faith this month,” she said.
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