{"id":431652,"date":"2026-01-23T06:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/431652\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:48:11","slug":"launceston-city-council-staff-to-vote-on-four-day-full-pay-work-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/431652\/","title":{"rendered":"Launceston City Council staff to vote on four-day, full-pay work week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launceston City Council is on the brink of allowing staff to work four days on full pay if a proposal is voted up next month.<\/p>\n

Council management and the Australian Services Union (ASU) have reached in-principle agreement on a deal for employees to work 30.4 hours over four days and be paid their full salaries.<\/p>\n

If the council’s 600 staff vote up the proposal next month, the conditions will be enshrined in the council’s enterprise agreement for the next two years from July 2026.<\/p>\n

Four-day work week reduces burnout and improves morale<\/a><\/p>\n

A new peer-reviewed study finds a four-day work week improves both physical and mental health, reduces burnout and boosts job satisfaction.<\/p>\n

The council’s chief executive officer, Sam Johnson, said the proposal was aimed at tackling attraction and retention issues.<\/p>\n

“People seeking to aspire to local government careers is in decline and, sadly, it’s been in decline for some time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Which tells me we haven’t responded to that group in the workforce.”<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said it would be “ignorant” to miss the opportunity, pointing to landmark industrial developments throughout Australian history such as the introduction of the 38-hour work week.<\/p>\n

“[The] reality is, at some point, someone has to do it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to lean into it in a positive way.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Sam Johnson says the proposal is aimed at tackling attraction and retention issues. (Supplied: Launceston City Council)<\/p>\n

“And while we’ve got such a productive and collaborative relationship with the key stakeholders \u2014 the ASU \u2014 to me, it would be a very, very missed opportunity to not do it now.”<\/p>\n

The council is expecting to stagger days off across individual teams, but Mr Johnson said he did not expect an increased reliance on private contractors or overtime expenses in cases where staff needed to be called in.<\/p>\n

“We are realists here, we know there will be teething problems,” he said.<\/p>\n

The conditions will not apply to senior executives, while employees already working part-time could be eligible for pay rises if they meet the criteria.<\/p>\n

The agreement also includes a 2 per cent pay increase over the two years.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The council’s 600 staff will vote on the proposal. (ABC News: Sean Wales)<\/p>\n

Industry group accuses council of ‘wedging’ local businesses<\/p>\n

The local business community has already expressed strong concerns, warning about the risk of increased costs, poorer service and pressure on local employers.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey labelled it “a 20 per cent reduction in hours for the same pay”.<\/p>\n

“Council is a monopoly provider of essential regulatory services \u2014 businesses can’t ‘shop around’ for a faster planning department,” Mr Bailey said in statement.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Bailey has labelled it “a 20 per cent reduction in hours for the same pay”. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)<\/p>\n

“If service slows down, projects are delayed, costs blow out, and investment is put at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That is the opposite of what Launceston needs right now.”<\/p>\n

Mr Bailey also said the move “wedged” local businesses by introducing a new benchmark that most small and medium business would not be able to afford.<\/p>\n

ASU branch secretary for Tasmania, Tash Wark, said the claim had majority support from union members.<\/p>\n

“We know sometimes there are issues for employers in that area of trying to attract staff and retain staff, so a condition like this is highly appealing to people who want that work-life balance,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Launceston City Council is on the brink of allowing staff to work four days on full pay if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[225939,64,63,99,2467,50744,12152,135,225940,11457,7893,14850,6624],"class_list":["post-431652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-4-day","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-council","tag-four-day","tag-launceston","tag-local-government","tag-matthew-garwood","tag-staff","tag-union","tag-week","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}