Several hundred angry City of Newcastle staff passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in two senior managers and an external consultant at a union stop-work meeting on Thursday.
United Services Union organiser Luke Hutchinson related to the crowd an email exchange which he said showed the managers and human-resources consultant colluding to deny a staff member redeployment opportunities after an IT department restructure.
He quoted one email from the consultant as saying: "There is no argument that he [a staff member] would have claims on this role based simply on role similarity, even on paper. It is not ideal that we won't reference this in restating his options once unsuccessful, but, given it was on the table during consultation, by due process should be now, however, I believe it is the best strategy to increase our chances in getting a positive outcome not to raise it initially."
Mr Hutchinson described the email chain as "disgraceful" and "conspired, underhanded, disingenuous work behind the scenes".
One of the managers in the email exchange inadvertently forwarded it to a departing employee on August 12.
Chief executive officer Jeremy Bath was not involved in any of the emails which have angered employees and unions, but the stop-work meeting exposed tensions between staff and their boss and his management team.
Local Government Engineers Association organiser Paul Marzato received the biggest cheer of the day when he labelled Mr Bath "pretty much a spin doctor".
"We were given all these great assurances by the CEO, Mr Jeremy Bath, that he would make things run properly," Mr Marzato said.
"So now his first hurdle he's fallen straight over it."
The Newcastle Herald reported on Thursday that lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes viewed the emails as "unacceptable" and had urged Mr Bath to sit down with the unions, acknowledge his managers had made "mistakes" and resolve the issues.
Mr Bath met with USU representatives on Monday, and on Wednesday evening the union provided the Newcastle Herald with what it described as a joint statement in which the CEO "offered to extend an apology" on behalf of the council to staff who felt "disrespected".
As Mr Hutchinson read the statement to the stop-work meeting, one employee yelled out: "We're all sorry when we get caught."
To cries of "shame" and "disgrace", Mr Hutchinson relayed the story of a long-time female employee who was sent an email at 5.39pm on a Thursday, the day before a rostered day off, informing her she would no longer be required in the office.
"One member was entering the redeployment program ... they turned up to work on the Monday and [were] embarrassed to see that email, people saying to them, 'What are you doing here?' he said. "It's just an absolutely disgraceful way to deal with our membership.
"Not even a discussion was held with this member before this email was sent, and the member had to deal with the embarrassment of cleaning out her desk after 26 years of employment.
"No process was put in place. They didn't know when their phone call was coming. They just had to sit around at home and wait for the phone to ring."
Mr Hutchinson moved successfully for a vote of no confidence in the managers. The motion denounced the "shambolic nature" of the IT restructure, the "perceived underhanded and disingenuous approach of the emails", the "trend" of the council not acting in the spirit of a 2018 enterprise agreement and a "punitive approach" towards USU members.
He said the council needed to "fix it and do it right or we'll be back here straight away and we'll take whatever action is necessary".
When asked by a member of the crowd why Mr Bath had been excluded from the vote of no confidence, Mr Hutchinson said the CEO deserved credit for starting to work with the union to resolve the issues.
Mr Bath said it was his job to "fix issues when they eventuate, and that is what I will continue to do".
The industrial unrest coincides with the council's move into a new office building in Newcastle West on Tuesday.
Council employees have told the Newcastle Herald that an anonymous email account used to relay staff concerns to the media has been closed after being "hacked".
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