The Fair Work Commission approved a new 2016-19 Enterprise Bargaining Agreement on January 12.

The new pay rises will less than the 3.5 per cent offered under the previous agreement.

Horsham council chief executive Peter Brown said the organisation, its workers and their union agreed to the deal last year.

“The EBA is a three-year agreement that took effect on July 1 2016, with pay increases of 2.1 per cent in each year.

“The major thing for council is that there is a requirement to re-negotiate every three years and this one has quite a low salary outcome.

“The previous EBA was about 3.5 per cent, so negotiations with staff were very fruitful and staff were very moderate in their requests.”

Mr Brown said the new agreement would help keep costs down and was helpful given the state government’s rates rise cap.

“With the rate capping environment, pay rises need to be kept to a minimum,” he said.

“Staff were very cooperative in the negotiation, which meant we were able to manage those cost increases.”

The major employee signatory to the workplace agreement, the Australian Services Union, has been contacted for comment.

Horsham council spent more than $16 million on employee costs in 2015-16, which included wages, allowances, leave entitlements, superannuation and Workcover.

The budget’s total expenditure was $46.8 million.