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Attn: NT Political and General Reporters
17 April 2020
ETU urges INPEX to abandon stand down pressure
“Work with us in these uncertain times”. Union urges Multinational
While NT Unions and businesses are looking for ways to work collaboratively with each other to get through this Pandemic some of the companies that have profited handsomely on the backs of NT workers clearly didn’t get the memo.
While the ships are still rolling out of the port and gas is still being produced, multinational corporation INPEX has made a decision to force its contractors to drastically reduce worker's incomes and force some workers to stand down without pay.
The decision announced without consultation has been slammed by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) as an act of bad faith.
ETU NT Organiser Dave “Strawbs” Hayes said the decision was a kick in the guts for his 70 affected members on site.
“The lack of respect shown to our members by INPEX is a real disappointment, we have worked collaboratively with the contractors to ensure work can continue while dealing with COVID-19, but they are telling us INPEX are forcing their hands. It’s a real kick in the guts for our members and we urge INPEX to reconsider now.”
Mr. Hayes said the workers were not consulted on alternatives to the short term stand down, stand by provisions. “Our guys on site have been and are still ready, willing and able to sit down and discuss the alternative outcomes, while INPEX has said they will review the provisions in early May, we need to talk about long term strategies now so we mitigate the disadvantage and share the pain as much as possible.”
“As it stands as of yesterday, we have gone from having fairly equitable rosters and workflows to a situation where there are now three tiers, with half of our members severely disadvantaged. We call on INPEX to reverse the decision, sit down with the ETU and our members and look at ways the impact can be shared across the whole workforce, and let’s not forget INPEX have made Billions of dollars off this project you would think they would have the reserves to mitigate most of the disadvantage for a few weeks,” he said
“If INPEX fails to work with the ETU and our members, they will have clearly abandoned the Team NT spirit and their corporate reputation will suffer accordingly.” He said.
For more information please contact Dave “Strawbs” Hayes 0419 721 042 or Andrew Irvine 0448 633 858