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Katie Woolf spoke with ETU Representative Dave Hayes · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is being reported that workers for the maintenance contractor
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: at Impex are striking. Joining us on the line right
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: now from the ETU.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Dave Hayes, also known as Strawbs Ghetto.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Strawbs, Good morning, Coatie, has things.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Not too bad? What's going on out there?
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  Speaker 3: So o, Katie, Look, we've been negotiating an enterprise bargaining
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  Speaker 3: agreement with Trace broad Spectrum, who are a contractor out
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  Speaker 3: here that performed the majority of the maintenance works on
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: the Impex plant. We've been in negotiations for about ten
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: months now with the company and just in the last
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: few days these negotiations have stalled. So the workforce, as
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: they can as they can under the APP have decided
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: to take detective industrial action today to try and move
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: forward in the bargaining process.
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  Speaker 1: And so what exactly are you concerned about or what
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  Speaker 1: are you trying to bargain for?
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  Speaker 3: So the enterprise, the original enterprise agreement in place on
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  Speaker 3: this plant was done in two thousand and seven AM
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  Speaker 3: for the maintenance contract. That we say that agreement did
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: not reflect the wages and additions and how people were
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: employed out here at the plant. So we've worked quite
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  Speaker 3: extensively and amicably with the company for quite some time
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  Speaker 3: to get an agreement together that actually reflects our everyone's employed,
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: that recognizes the skills and the responsibilities that the trades
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  Speaker 3: people out here have working on a major hazard facility.
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  Speaker 3: We've done quite well so far. We've had two the
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: agreement's gone out the vote twice, the proposed agreement which
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: has been unanically and knocked back by the workforce, and
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  Speaker 3: we're at a stage where we're down to the final
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  Speaker 3: few items that we're trying to negotiate to secure a package.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously the final few items have costs that are
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: attracted to them, and these are the ones that are
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: seeming to be very hard to get over the line.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Are you able to tell us what those final few
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  Speaker 2: items are.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so. We're looking at things around the paid
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: breaks scenarios. So when you look at these gas plants
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: and how they're situated, people go out to work, they
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: stay there all day and work, and we believe they
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: should be paid for their time actually out on the facility. Currently,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: they don't have their brakes paid and that's something that
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: is common in the industry and something we're trying to
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: achieve for this workforce. We've got annually even personal over
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: ceruls at the rostered rates to pay, which is something
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: that is also in a shift working industry, which is
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: quite common, which they don't receive. Now we've got a
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: number of different allowances that we're still trying to secure
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: in relation and that ties into the classifications for the
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: workforce and ensuring that they are paid and recognized for
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: what they do in their given roles. Got a couple
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: of smaller things but still important things that like pandemic
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: leave which is quite a hot topic at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: rdos from Monday to Friday workers and a few other
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  Speaker 3: bits and pieces. So we've come down to the the
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: business end of negotiations and we need the company to
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: come forward and you know, let's secure some conditions. We've
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  Speaker 3: still got some room to move, we believe around some
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: items and we think we can we can get there
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  Speaker 3: and get a good outcome for this entirely local workforce.
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  Speaker 3: Get a four year agreement in place for them, which
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  Speaker 3: both helps the company with their contract, which secures the
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: wages of conditions for the workforce for the next four
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: years out on the plant, and in so as we
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  Speaker 3: keep these people in Darwin. This highly skilled labor, and
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  Speaker 3: they don't head off to other gas plants to work
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  Speaker 3: at which currently attract between ten and twenty percent higher
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  Speaker 3: wages than the poor cousins here in Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to say, Straves, I know that there'll
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: be some people listening, and I've got to ask you
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  Speaker 1: know they'll be listening saying are you just being greedy here?
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  Speaker 3: No, what we're looking at We've looked at the industry
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  Speaker 3: as a whole. So if you take, for example, glad
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  Speaker 3: them the gas plants over there Western Australia, the gas
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  Speaker 3: plants over there industry which has absolutely developed over the
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: last ten or twelve years, and with this new facility
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  Speaker 3: being operated here in Darwin. The original agreement was well
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: and truly substandard and the industry, the industry rates of
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  Speaker 3: what we want to see afforded to these people here
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  Speaker 3: who work on what is an absolutely dangerous environment and
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  Speaker 3: the responsibilities they have on a daily basis to do
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  Speaker 3: their job correctly to avoid any incidents out here. We
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  Speaker 3: need that recognized and rewarded as it is in the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the industry.
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  Speaker 2: How many people have you got out there today striking?
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  Speaker 3: So we've got a couple of shifts off this morning.
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  Speaker 3: That this action affects one hundred and eighty odd employees
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  Speaker 3: or the trace operation. There's three unions involved, which is
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: the ETU, the AMW and the AW. We have coverage
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  Speaker 3: across all the different whether it be mechanical, electrical, crane
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  Speaker 3: scaff oighting. So we've got a couple of shifts out
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  Speaker 3: this morning. Obviously there's not one hundred and eighty people
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  Speaker 3: working out here at one time, but we've had a
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  Speaker 3: great turn up of close to one hundred of the
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  Speaker 3: workforce this morning as some of the guys who are
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: on ship or sorry the workers who are on shift
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  Speaker 3: have come out of the gate stop work this morning.
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  Speaker 1: How long are you going to continue this stop work
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  Speaker 1: action for?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're putting stoppages for today which will roll through
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: the day. We hope to speak to the company this afternoon.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: We have got a planned bargaining meeting for tomorrow afternoon
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  Speaker 3: which we want to get back to the table to
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: them with so we expect to have conversations with the
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: company in relation to that. We also have another quite
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: another array of options in relation to industrial action we
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  Speaker 3: can take and some of them the people remain on
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  Speaker 3: site and they can have bands on equipment that they
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  Speaker 3: use and things like that. So at this point in time,
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  Speaker 3: we just need to look at how the day plays out.
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  Speaker 3: Hopefully get back to the table tomorrow and we'll see
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  Speaker 3: how we go.
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  Speaker 1: What impact is this having out there in terms of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you know, work being able to get underway or be underway.
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  Speaker 1: Is it totally stopping things from happening?
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  Speaker 3: So the impacts employees themselves would still be at work
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  Speaker 3: operating the plant. This workforce, you know, substitute or probably
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: another full workforce that help impacts with anything. If there
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: was breakdowns or things like that that happened today that
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: would cause them a fair bit of drama or say,
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: but the plant can operate safely with the impacts employees
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: operating it. And part of our actions is to recognize
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  Speaker 3: that if there is safety concerns that our workforce be
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  Speaker 3: available if needed to keep the plant operating in a
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  Speaker 3: stay with fashion.
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  Speaker 1: Well strabes, we are going to have to leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: Please let us know how things progress and no doubt
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk to you a get in the near future.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Thanks for your interest, Coatie, Thank you.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: That is the ETU there, Dave Hayes, and as
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You've just heard close to one hundred employees have seen
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: out there striking at the moment or taking that stop
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  Speaker 1: work action