Hamilton City Council – strike action is now imminent

Hamilton City Council advises that strike action from PSA members is imminent following a stalemate in their talks today.

Barry Harris Chief Executive says the Council’s position remains firm on the specific issue the PSA are raising.  “Hamilton City Council supports a pay for performance system – we will not accept unilateral pay increases simply for being a member of the PSA.”

“Unfortunately we did not reach agreement today  - the PSA want a minimum 1% annual pay increase regardless of staff members’ performance or length of service and this is unacceptable to us. 

At the end of the day we are responsible for ratepayers’ investment in the delivery of Council services; we believe ‘pay for performance’ is the only right way to remunerate our staff for delivery of those services,” he said.

Mr Harris noted that in the last pay round PSA members who received a pay increase (alongside other council staff) under the pay for performance system received an average rise of 2.1%.

The Council has said they are willing to keep the doors open for negotiation.

In the event of any strike action Mr Harris says they have contingency plans for most areas.