An industry in turmoil

It seems the electricity industry is on the brink of revolt, with unions applying to Fair Work Australia for the right to take protected industrial action.

The move comes hot on the heels of the termination of 15 Endeavour Energy electrical apprentices late last year, according to the Electrical Trades Union (ETU). Endeavour is owned by the NSW Government and it’s claimed that a further 41 fourth-year apprentices have been offered contracts of only six months, with no guarantee of future employment or redundancy entitlements if they are let go. The ETU asserts that electricity companies generally train workers in specialist skills needed to maintain and upgrade the network, but that there is no precedent for graduating apprentices to discover they would not have a job.

Both the ETU and the United Services Union (USU) are seeking improvements around job security following several months of unsuccessful bargaining over new enterprise agreements, which they say reached a new low last month when conditional offers made by both Endeavour Energy and Ausgrid were rejected by workers.

According to ETU secretary Steve Butler, “The offers put forward by Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy last month require the trading off of conditions that would cut the take home pay of workers.

“The Baird government wants to drive up the cost of electricity for consumers and drive down wages in order to maximise the amount of money the government will get from its electricity privatisation plans,” Butler said.

“Workers are staring down the barrel of massive job losses after Ausgrid flagged the potential loss of 2400 jobs while Endeavour Energy has indicated 700 jobs may be lost over the coming years.

“Every worker in NSW deserves job security and we believe that this is not too much to ask for, particularly when electricity workers are facing uncertain times in the face of the Liberals’ and Nationals’ electricity privatisation plans,” said Butler.

“Electricity workers perform dangerous work often in treacherous conditions to make sure the people of NSW have a safe, reliable and continuous supply of electricity.

“All these workers want is a fair deal that maintains current conditions, delivers job security moving forward and provides a fair pay rise, but management and the Baird government prefer to attack these frontline workers who serve the people of NSW day in and day out,” he said.

Fair Work Australia is being asked to approve protected industrial action, which could include workplace bans on overtime and possible stoppages. A list of options will be presented to workers, who will be asked to vote on the industrial action by secret ballot.

Action that may be taken includes the refusal to disconnect customers that fail to pay their bills, displaying and distributing information to members of the public about workers’ concerns, bans on some workplace practices including training and overtime, and possible work stoppages.

“Electricity workers perform a dangerous job maintaining the electricity network in order to deliver an essential service to the people of NSW,” said USU Energy Manager Scott McNamara.

“At the same time, the Baird government is doing everything it can to cut services to the bone, run public assets into the ground or privatise them and slash jobs across New South Wales,” said McNamara.

Unions are concerned that the current treatment of apprentices and other staff will deter other young workers from undergoing further training, which will lead to future shortages of the specialist skills required to operate the electricity network.

If the application is approved by Fair Work Australia and moves to a worker ballot, it is unlikely that any industrial action would occur prior to mid-February.