Advanced Search

Share Coverage



Category: Oil and Gas / Industrial Relations

Industrial umpire called in after mass layoffs on Ichthys project

Thursday, 16 Mar 2017 11:34:48 | Xavier La Canna

One of the workers said new people were hired to start the same day news of the dispute broke. (ABC News: Nancy Notzon)

Unions and engineering firm Laing O'Rourke will plead their cases before Australia's industrial umpire, as the fallout continues from yesterday's mass layoffs at the Ichthys gas project.

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) launched an application in the Fair Work Commission after 850 people were left jobless by a dispute between Laing O'Rourke and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

The hearing was due to commence late on Thursday morning.

Laing O'Rourke has the contract to build cryogenic tanks for the $US36 billion Ichthys project on behalf of Kawasaki, one of the largest contracts on the project.

Hundreds of workers learned they were out of work yesterday when they went to get off buses to begin duties for the day.

Some were taken to Darwin Airport where they were put on planes home.

'Workers in turmoil'

Deputy secretary of the ETU in Queensland and NT, Peter Ong, said an agreement between Laing O'Rourke and its workers was supposed to ensure there was consultation in a timely fashion if there was to be a major change at the project.

"Obviously terminating people's employment en masse and removing yourself from the project would be considered a major change," Mr Ong said.

"At this stage we are taking Laing O'Rourke to court over breach of agreement and trying to get a halt to what has happened and a stay if you like to the guys being retrenched."

Mr Ong said the ETU was seeking to get consultation between the various parties and some certainty for workers.

"They [workers] have been thrown into turmoil at the moment," he said.

Workers 'looked after', Laing O'Rourke says

Laing O'Rourke general manager Josh Murray said the company had been paying all of its workers and made sure they were looked after.

"We will do everything possible in the coming days to get people redeployed to projects where it will suit them and where we can use those skills, and we will work with them now on that," he said.

"Unfortunately we couldn't have a situation where we sent them out to work on an incredibly complex engineering job every day, in 36 degree temperatures, without knowing that they were going to be looked after in the long term and that their work was going to be valued by the people that we are working with."

'Seven blokes started yesterday'

There was a small protest by a handful of workers outside the offices of Laing O'Rourke in Darwin this morning.

Aerial photo of Inpex's Ichthys LNG plant site at Bladin Point. Photo: Unions are claiming a breach of contract from Laing O'Rourke regarding work at the Inpex plant. (Supplied: Inpex)

Some employees told the ABC they had signed leases or bought houses thinking they still had six months left working with the project.

One employee who did not want to be named told the ABC the announcement came as a shock and they did not even have time to get their personal tools.

He said they should have been consulted earlier.

"They were still hiring, there were supposed to be seven blokes starting yesterday," he said.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has been contacted for comment.

AustraliaPlus


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend