Liverpool Council employees have launched legal action against the mayor over allegations of bullying, in the same week the council held an extraordinary general meeting about staff costs.
United Services Union members filed the claim in the Industrial Relations Commission against longtime Liberal mayor Ned Mannoun, and the two parties met at the commission in Parramatta on Thursday for about three hours before Commissioner Janine Webster.
The legal action is the latest escalation in the conflict between Mannoun and the powerful union, which represents most office and outdoor staff employed in local government in NSW. The union reports a membership of about 600 in Liverpool.
The complaint was sparked by a Facebook video Mannoun posted before a byelection last month, in which he said the union had “bullied” former deputy mayor Betty Green, who had quit the Labor party.
The videos did not distinguish between union officials and union members, the group’s complaint read, and placed members “in a collective position of risk and harm” by sharing photos of members taking industrial action, “an attempt to stoke community resentment against the union”.
The union’s lawyer, Daniel Papps, said the matter could not be resolved on Thursday.
“We’re back in the commission in three weeks, but from the union’s perspective, we’re still very concerned with the mayor’s conduct and the ongoing risk it poses to our members. We don’t think we were given anything from the mayor today that changes that level of concern.”
Mannoun said he was open to making a joint statement with the union about how the parties could communicate differently in the future. “What I did wasn’t bullying,” he said after the hearing.
Tuesday meeting
The clash came after the union claimed on Monday that the council was planning to cut 140 jobs at an extraordinary general meeting the following day. The claims were triggered by an 11.54pm email sent by Liberal councillor Matthew Harte requesting an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the council’s draft delivery and operational plan and long-term plan. Mannoun approved the request at 11.59pm, emails show.
Before the meeting, Office of Local Government deputy secretary Brett Whitworth wrote to the council to “strongly encourage” them to defer the meeting, because no business papers were available.
“In the absence of publicly available information about the item being considered … it is not possible to determine whether council has complied with its obligations under the act,” Whitworth said.
He referred to the agency’s public inquiry into the council. “It would not be appropriate for council to make material changes to its budget structure and policy while the inquiry is being finalised,” he said.
At the meeting, with regular interjections from the public gallery, the Liberals lost a motion to discuss the budget in confidential session.
A new motion from Harte pushed for the council to direct chief executive Jason Breton to model an increase in employee costs by 7.25 per cent in the 2026-27 budget, among other budget adjustments, and to “commence an internal investigation on the leaking of confidential information to the United Services Union”, a reference to union claims the council was preparing to cut jobs.
The latter was removed in the final motion, which passed. The council will meet again on Tuesday.
Anthony Segaert is the Parramatta bureau chief at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously an urban affairs reporter.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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