{"id":130390,"date":"2015-12-16T01:19:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T15:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=130390"},"modified":"2020-08-05T12:55:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T02:55:34","slug":"unions-welcome-electricity-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Unions Welcome Electricity Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 15, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

The merger of Ergon Energy and Energex has been welcomed by unions after a pledge by the State Government that despite a predicted 360 job losses there will be no forced redundancies.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Curtis Pitt announced on Tuesday that the two government-owned corporations would be merged into a new single business.<\/p>\n

He said the merger would remove duplication in administration, shared services, boards, management and corporate costs and drive new jobs in north Queensland.<\/p>\n

Mr Pitt also promised the creation of a “new and innovative energy services subsidiary” – yet to be named – which would combine Ergon Retail and other elements from Ergon and Energex to be based in Townsville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new energy services business will look at options to utilise renewable technologies in regional Queensland, particularly in remote areas, to improve reliability and sustainability of electricity supply,\u201d Mr Pitt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis business will … create up to 500 jobs over the next decade.”<\/p>\n

Mr Pitt said the Ergon-Energex merger would improve network efficiency and “ultimately deliver power bill savings for customers over the longer term”.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong with a number of other efficiency measures across Queensland\u2019s electricity network and generation businesses, this merger will save around $680 million over the 2019-20 period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA new company is expected to be in place by mid-2016, with the Energex and Ergon Energy brands remaining for the time being, and frontline staff continuing to deliver network services in their respective regions.”<\/p>\n

Powerlink – which had been tipped to be included in rationalisation plans – has not been included in the merger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And power generators Stanwell and CS Energy will also remain separate businesses, after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission expressed concerns that a possible merger could reduce competition in the electricity market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is consistent with our commitment at the election to consult with the ACCC, but we will undertake a structural review to achieve operational efficiencies within Powerlink, CS Energy and Stanwell ensuring they are well positioned to respond to the needs of the energy market of the future,\u201d Mr Pitt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no forced redundancies, however all four businesses are expected to reduce their staff levels by a combined 366 people between now and 2020 as a result of the merger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrontline staff will continue to deliver network services in their respective regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe merger will mean that the new network business can better leverage scale to invest in new technologies such as battery storage, better manage increasing levels of solar generation and provide regional Queenslanders with greater access to innovative products and services such as smart meters.”<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Stuart<\/a>
ETU Organiser Stuart Traill (Photo: CairnsBlog.Net)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Electrical Trades Union welcomed Tuesday\u2019s announcement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ETU Electricity Supply Organiser Stuart Traill applauded the State Government for honouring its pre-election “no forced redundancies” commitment and said the union was “looking forward to working with the Palaszczuk Government in the implementation of the merger”.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy committing to no forced redundancies, our members working in Energex and Ergon, and their families, can take confidence going into the Christmas and New Year shutdown that their jobs are safe, and that there is a bright future for their industry from 2016 and beyond,\u201d Mr Traill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe $680 million in savings generated by the merger is practicable and achievable. It also shows the current State Government is focused on service delivery for Queensland energy workers and customers and clearly demonstrates the long-term advantages that can be gained by continued public ownership of our energy assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis approach couldn\u2019t be further away from the short-sighted LNP mantra of flogging off every State-owned asset, with no thought of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Union also stated its support for the proposed establishment of a new “Energy Services Division” that would focus on renewable and emerging technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Energy Services division is exciting and shows good vision for the future of electricity supply in this state. By basing the new division in Townsville, it will be a great driver of local jobs in the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Services Union also welcomed the statement and congratulated the State Government on the decision to form a new Energy Services business in Townsville.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Services Union secretary Neil Henderson said this would be a significant contribution to the development of regional employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur union has worked extensively with the government and other energy industry unions in regard to the merger to ensure the job security of our members,” Mr Henderson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been reflected in the announcement today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst there may be some structural changes and government are anticipating a loss of 366 jobs by 2020, existing employees have the benefit of no forced redundancies as a result of the successful Enterprise Bargaining campaigning earlier this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Henderson said The Services Union would continue to work with the State Government to “ensure a smooth implementation phase of the merger and to minimise impacts on employees”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The merger of Ergon Energy and Energex has been welcomed by unions after a pledge by the State Government that despite a predicted 360 job losses there will be no forced redundancies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":102472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3],"tags":[32,34],"yoast_head":"\nUnions Welcome Electricity Merger - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unions Welcome Electricity Merger - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The merger of Ergon Energy and Energex has been welcomed by unions after a pledge by the State Government that despite a predicted 360 job losses there will be no forced redundancies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-15T15:19:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-05T02:55:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/20150408ergon2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/\",\"name\":\"Unions Welcome Electricity Merger - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-15T15:19:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-05T02:55:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unions Welcome Electricity Merger - southburnett.com.au","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unions Welcome Electricity Merger - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"The merger of Ergon Energy and Energex has been welcomed by unions after a pledge by the State Government that despite a predicted 360 job losses there will be no forced redundancies.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2015-12-15T15:19:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-05T02:55:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"385","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/20150408ergon2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/","name":"Unions Welcome Electricity Merger - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-12-15T15:19:51+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-05T02:55:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/12\/16\/unions-welcome-electricity-merger\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130390"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270062,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130390\/revisions\/270062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}