The council job cut rumours, the Ray Hadley interview, and the ‘dead man walking'

The Age

a day ago

Morthen said she left the meeting with Ajaka and called her USU manager, Steve Donley, to tell him the council was 'looking at cutting 150 jobs', and the pair spoke about organising union meetings.
Soon after, Morthen had breakfast with a colleague at Lilys Cafe in Prestons, where she saw Mannoun with other Liberal councillors. She asked why the council was mulling the job cuts, but he 'just kept asking me if I thought it was acceptable one of our members told him to shut the f--- up'.
Morthen told the inquiry the revolving door of 10 acting or permanent chief executive officers in eight years was 'a bit of a joke' in the 13 years she had represented workers at the council.
'A new CEO will start, and they'll be called dead man walking. It's a constant refrain.
'We knew John's job was at risk.'
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The inquiry heard Donley said in an interview with 2GB radio host Ray Hadley on April 23 that 150 jobs were 'on the line', and union members were to protest outside the next day's council meeting.
Hadley told listeners a short time later that Mannoun denied those figures, and had 'supplied me with page after page of repudiation of what I've said. What he's told me is 'We wouldn't cut 150 [jobs]. That's 15 per cent of our organisation. We've asked the manager to look at reducing management costs.' '
Morthen said although Mannoun had denied the figures, the situation was 'not clear'. The union delegates had the night before agreed on some approved chants for the rally, which she said were 'usually pretty boring, like 'heave go, Ned's got to go'.'
The inquiry later heard she had not objected to a chant of 'Ned's a knob, save our jobs' because she didn't think it was 'too colourful'. 'It rhymes, it's catchy, it's easy to say,' she said.
Morthen said one person at the rally had chanted 'put some pork on your fork', and a union representative had repeated the phrase once before Morthen had told him to stop.
The inquiry heard Mannoun reposted on his Facebook page a video of the workers' rally, which showed people chanting 'put some pork on your fork' and included text which read: 'Council union employees attack Muslim mayor with Islamophobic and antisemitic chants and bring pig to protest.'
Mannoun included remarks saying he wouldn't be 'bullied by racist thugs', and wrote: 'This is what happens when we ask them to do a better job cutting the grass or fixing the roads for you.'
Morthen said members were 'extremely upset they were being called racist'. She spoke of several alleged incidents which had caused workers to fear for their safety after Mannoun's post.
One worker, who was deaf, said he was in a park when a member of the public 'came up behind him and was gesturing in an aggressive way and he thought it was linked to the mayor's comments'.
A childcare worker in a council uniform was also approached by a man in a supermarket who yelled at her about 'being a racist council employee' and followed the woman to her car.
In a third reported incident, a council employee claimed that he was driving on a road in a 'big enclosed tractor … and he alleged his vehicle was shot at and there was a bullet hole in the glass'.
The inquiry heard the concerns were referred to the Industrial Relations Commission after union members stopped working on safety grounds. Mannoun later removed the social media post, and the union agreed to inform members it no longer believed 150 jobs would be cut, following mediation.
Under questions from Mannoun's lawyer, Kate Richardson, SC, Morthen admitted she regretted that she had misled an independent investigator by suggesting Ajaka was not the source of the 150 job cuts rumour because she was worried his contract would be terminated, and she was 'protecting my member'.
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'The USU did not create that number. Mr Ajaka told me that number,' Morthen said.
She admitted she later felt 'angry it appeared I was being thrown under the bus'.
Richardson asked Morthen whether it was appropriate for a general manager to tell a mayor to 'shut the f--- up'.