The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union applied to Fair Work Australia on Monday to vote on taking protected industrial action, with Bechtel not opposing the move to start a ballot.
Yet the FIFO Construction Workers 3/1 Forum, a Facebook group, suspects it will have a fight on its hands.
A member of the group uploaded a scanned document, which Bechtel has since confirmed was an “information sheet for employees”, onto the site, which outlined possible countermeasures to industrial action.
“An example of this is that Bechtel can ‘lock out’ employees who have taken ‘protected industrial action’,” the document said.
“Such ‘lock outs’ can be for an indefinite period. During such ‘lock-outs’ those employees locked out will not get paid.”
Bechtel aims to maintain a four-weeks-on, one-week-off working roster, with the workplace agreement behind this existing arrangement expiring on June 5 – although it will remain in place until it is terminated or replaced.
As the contractor building all the Curtis Island-based processing facilities for the Santos-operated Gladstone LNG project, BG’s Queensland Curtis LNG project and the Origin Energy-led Australia Pacific LNG project, the document revealed Bechtel did not want to alter any existing schedules.
“The projects were planned to 4&1 rosters and all non-local employees signed up for a 4&1 roster and the reality is it that it is too late to change the roster for these projects,” the leaked memo said in a dot point under the heading “deal on the table”.
A Bechtel spokesman has since told ENP: “If the vote does approve ‘protected industrial action’ then all the union has to do is give Bechtel three days written notice of the type of industrial action its members, who it has coverage over, are intending to take and then after the three days they can take it.
“Any members taking protected industrial action do not get paid whilst they are doing it.”
While the spokesman confirmed that lock-outs were also part of the same Fair Work process, he hinted that workers who did not want to strike might still be economically harmed if such industrial action occurred.
“Should any ‘protected industrial action’ cause a stoppage to the overall operation of the site, or parts of the site, Bechtel has the ability to stand down without pay sections of the workforce who cannot be productively employed,” the spokesman said.
“These employees may not be the ones taking ‘protected industrial action’ but nevertheless will lose money because of that action.”
