COUNCIL workers have demanded Cairns Mayor Val Schier cut her $150,000 plus salary by 5 per cent after revelations the organisation would shave millions off its Budget by cutting staff overtime and other allowances in 2009-10.

Cairns Regional Council workers – some threatening to strike – have also demanded councillors, who earn about $100,000, slash their wages.

It comes as the council this week said cutbacks worth $8 million would be seen through the outdoor workforce, casual and agency staff, training, materials and maintenance work.

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Electrical Trades’ Union Far North organiser Stuart Traill, who represents 35 workers at the council, said bosses had shunted workers by hiring contractors after a dispute over the council cutting emergency call-out shift overtime from the minimum of four hours to two hours.

"Ultimately, ratepayers of Cairns will end up paying extra for this – the contractor is going to do it for a profit."

• Workers face pay cut

But Mayor Val Schier said most councillors worked seven-day weeks, that no workers were losing their jobs and said senior staff were working longer hours without any bonuses as in the past.

She would not say if councillors would take a pay cut.

"One of the ways that council staff are reducing expenditure is by limiting overtime and that is a sensible decision to make in a financial crisis of the magnitude that we are currently living through," she said.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union representative for the Far North, Rick Finch, who represents about 34 workers, was also furious and said the council was dysfunctional by hiring more expensive contract workers.

"I can guarantee you if we weren’t in this economic downturn … half of those employees would have gone – they would no longer be working for council.

"We always prefer to negotiate but at the end of the day when you have an organisation not listening sometimes the workers’ only recourse is to withdraw their labour – that is the last straw."

Australian Workers Union Far North secretary Darryl Noack shared the sentiments of his 330 members who are part of the outdoor workforce and said the council should sack its contractors.

While he said overtime was never a guaranteed factor he said members should not have to wear the brunt of cutbacks and said the maintenance of the city would fall apart if any hours were cut.

"What this council should realise is that council workers are the workers that keep the lifeblood of this city flowing," he said.

"I agree … if they need to make cutbacks they should start with the salaries of the senior managers and councillors."

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