The SS Noosa Council is drifting dangerously at the moment with a crew that’s unhappy, bordering on mutinous.  It’s not quite time to launch the lifeboats, but this little ship definitely requires stabilising.

The recent shock decision by the council CEO to impose a 2-day lock-out – without pay – of part of the workforce prior to the Labor Day weekend amplifies concerns about the organisational culture at Noosa Council. 

The internal ructions have been building for several years, with a workforce paid less than its peers nearby, a breakdown in trust between management and the workforce, a disintegrating council culture…and all of it directly affecting the public face of our council and the essential work it must do. So, as we like to do at Noosa Matters, let’s look at why this happened and what may happen next.

A very public industrial meltdown

Since March, Noosa Council staff have taken protected industrial action as part of their ongoing campaign for fair pay and improved working conditions under a new enterprise bargaining agreement.  

The last 3-year agreement started in August 2021 and has nominally expired. An agreement applies to all staff whether they’re union members or not.

Negotiations commenced over six months ago, yet the parties appear no closer to finding a solution to the dispute, despite hearings facilitated through the Industrial Relations Commission. If an agreement is not achieved soon the matter will most likely end up in the Industrial Relations Court for determination.

While council has the legal right to take lock-out action, it is a bullying tactic that shows the damaged relationship between the leadership and staff. Disagreements are common during such negotiations, but people of goodwill can usually find a middle ground without taking drastic action.

No doubt each side has some responsibility for the break-down, but it is council that has the duty to its ratepayers and to its own staff to take the lead to resolve the dispute in a way that does not damage the fabric of the organisation or its reputation as an ‘employer of choice’.

This type of dispute becomes very divisive, pitting management against employees, and employees against each other.  The bad blood can fester for years.

Work bans result in other employees having to carry extra workload and union members taking the brunt of actions when all employees – union members or not – receive the benefits of any negotiated improvements. Council taking the extreme action of an unpaid lock-out inflames the situation. As one source said, “sadly the culture is in a shambles”.

While there is a range of matters under negotiation, it appears the main stumbling block is the disparity in pay levels between Noosa and its neighbouring councils, and particularly Gympie Regional Council – which we believe Noosa Council’s own negotiating team chose as the comparative local government.

Noosa Council has historically been able to pay its staff slightly below other councils as applicants were attracted to the Noosa lifestyle and the reputation of the organisation as progressive and a great place to work.  Those days have passed with the desirable lifestyle now wrapped up in some of the state’s highest housing costs – making it harder to attract and retain talent in the absence of competitive rates of remuneration. Furthermore, the council’s reputation as a place to work has taken a beating over recent years and is on a steep decline. This recent action won’t help.

When Noosa Council de-amalgamated in 2014, all staff transferred on the Sunshine Coast Regional Council pay rates and conditions. It was after this that the gap with adjoining councils started to widen. Gympie staff achieved a major increase with industrial action leading to their 2022 agreement and that exacerbated the variance in pay levels between the two local governments.  It has clearly got to the point that Noosa Council staff no longer feel it is acceptable to get paid less than their neighbours for doing the same jobs.

For example, a check of the online certified agreements shows the current gross annual base pay for a Level 3 administrative employee and a Level 3 field worker (excluding any allowances and before tax):

As you can see, the difference between the two councils is substantial, indicating that Noosa needs to make significant adjustments to its pay and conditions to match Gympie’s. This disparity is even more pronounced given that Gympie is currently negotiating a new certified agreement which will further increase the pay and conditions offered to its employees. So not only does Noosa need to catch up, but it also needs to reasonably keep up with the pay and conditions that will be offered by its neighbours over the next 2 to 3 years.

This week Noosa Council was offering an extra 15% over three years, with 6.5% in the first year, followed by a 4.5% increase in year two and a 4% rise in year three.  Council has thrown in an extra olive branch by agreeing to back pay the first rise to late February this year. The union will take the latest offer to its members for a vote this week.

Even if wages are equalised with Gympie, it will remain challenging to recruit and retain staff at Noosa Council as it will still cost workers a lot more of their after-tax income to either live here or to live outside the shire and travel each day – which many are now doing.

As an example of the difference in housing costs, as of 1 May 2025, realestate.com data shows;

• The median house price in Cooroy is around $1.05M compared to $574,425 in Gympie.  
• The median house rental price in Cooroy is around $750 per week compared to approximately $520 per week in Gympie.

I have used Cooroy as the comparison as it is slightly more affordable than any of the coastal villages of Noosa.

Despite council’s spin on the talks being “amicable”, reliable sources have told us that staff feel they are at their wit’s end and that they have had no option but to work to rule. That means not answering phones or responding to emails.  There will be a massive backlog once the dispute is resolved and this is on top of already increased workloads trying to cover the numerous vacancies across the organisation.  Meantime, many staff, particularly outdoor staff, are hunting for jobs in Gympie, the Sunshine Coast or further afield. 

The problems appear to run deeper than just pay rates, with allegations of some staff being mistreated and bullied by certain senior staff.  

This situation led to a former employee posting on social media over the Labor Day weekend. The following extracts are worth highlighting:

“As an Ex-Employee of Noosa Council late last year, just shy of my 10 years.  I honestly thought that this awesome workforce that I worked with daily would be who I RETIRED with!!! 

However, as management changed & us “The Staff” were blamed for the TOXIC culture, I can assure the Noosa Shire public that the toxicity was not generated by us workers on the ground.

Towards the end of my time working with the Civil Works & Parks Operations at Noosaville Depot, I had NEVER in my 9.5 years experienced feeling so belittled, disrespected & undervalued by upper management.

60 Staff members have left in the past 4 months. There is a 20% vacancy rate. Nearly 17% turnover rate! So when you want to take a shot at your local council workers for being behind on jobs, please consider that these crews are understaffed, are paid over 10% lower than the same roles at Gympie Council, and have been busting their backs to keep up with demand in an effort to serve the people of this shire despite horrible leadership and zero recognition.”

Former Noosa Council employee

These comments are consistent with what Noosa Matters contributors have been hearing over the last few years. The stress on staff was highlighted in former Mayor Tony Wellington’s Feb 2025 article  It’s been a tough few years for Noosa Council staff.

Of course, such complaints don’t apply to every work area, with many supervisors and their staff working hard and amicably to achieve the best possible outcomes for the community.

Residents expect reliable and efficient service delivery from council and wise utilisation of ratepayer funds. It is a balancing act that needs to be carefully managed. 

The ‘optics’ right now could not be worse, as Noosa Council decided this month to continue to fund Tourism Noosa and help them employ staff, while claiming it cannot afford to pay its own staff a comparable wage to adjoining local councils.  

The real costs of an unhappy workforce

Council has considerable cash reserves as well as potential opportunities to make productivity improvements and other savings so that they can pay staff a fairer living wage.  Perhaps it’s time to prioritise essential services and reduce unnecessary ‘feel good’ programs?

The price of continuing to pay lower wages will be decreased productivity, continuing low employee morale, increased internal conflicts, and difficulties in recruitment and retention of good staff. The flow-on impacts will be increased resident dissatisfaction with the level of service being provided.  This is when elected Councillors will start to feel the heat.

You may ask the question why residents should be concerned when the post-Covid impacts on the cost of housing and cost of living are affecting so many others in the community.  The answer is that if council doesn’t pay staff wages that are comparable to adjoining councils then it will reach the point where more and more contractors will be needed to do the work. That will cost ratepayers a lot more than providing the services in-house. I don’t know of any tradie around town who is willing to work for less than $60,000 a year!

The appalling decision to lock-out staff without pay has already done enormous damage to the organisation’s culture and reputation. Obviously our council needs to settle the dispute as quickly as possible. Regardless of the pay dispute outcome, the CEO and senior staff’s handling of this conflict means that they will be in the game of damage control and reputational repair for years to come.