January 22, 2014
The Electrical Trades Union fears a move to cut another 116 jobs at Ergon Energy may foreshadow plans to cut more jobs in the field and could effect Queensland’s ability to bounce back after storms.
ETU State Organiser Stuart Traill said the union had been told 116 positions would be shed across Ergon’s operations, including 47 managers and 66 employees in other categories such as designers and support type roles.
“These are the roles that allows the guys in the field to do their jobs,” Mr Traill said.
He said the loss of support staff could also indicate there would be further cuts to field-based jobs.
Mr Traill said Ergon had identified a series of “redundant” positions. Workers in these roles would be invited to apply for voluntary redundancies.
If insufficient applications were made, workers in the identified positions would be transferred into an “employees in transition” pool.
“The aim will be to frustrate them and eventually they will leave,” Mr Traill said.
He said Ergon had organised “employee assistance support” to be provided at Toowoomba, Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton and Maryborough so it was believed the majority of the cuts would occur at these depots.
However the loss of support roles would also be felt at the smaller depots, including in the local area, he said.
“There will be job cuts in the Wide Bay area for sure,” Mr Traill said.
He said the latest job losses took to 1600 the number of jobs lost across the electricity industry – in generation, transmission and distribution – since the LNP State Government came to power.
He said this number of jobs could not be removed from the industry without it having an effect the next time Queensland was “belted by storms”.
Mr Traill said everyone except the State Government seemed to understand that if the number of “troops on the ground” was cut, it would affect the response times of returning infrastructure to normal.
“You can’t sack 1600 workers and expect the same level of services to the customers of Queensland,” he said.
Mr Traill said the State Government had argued the cuts were needed to reduce upward pressure on electricity prices yet in the past two years Queenslanders had been slugged with a record 22.6 per cent increase in costs plus a proposed 13 per cent rise from July.
He also asked where Ergon’s $434 million profit had gone.
“The 35 per cent increase in profits certainly hasn’t gone into infrastructure or to reduce the skyrocketing price of electricity, and now they are sacking more staff,” he said.
Mr Traill said the latest cuts may also not be the last, with a further round anticipated on February 25.
