Chevron’s proposed Enterprise Agreement (EA) has been rejected by 100 per cent of the workers and Offshore Alliance members at the company’s Gorgon and Wheatstone Downstream gas processing facilities.

The EA was not endorsed by the Offshore Alliance negotiating team and the result reflects Monday’s ballot vote — in which, all union members voted in favour of taking protected industrial action (PIA) at Chevron’s Wheatstone Platform.

Offshore Alliance notified Chevron on behalf of members on Monday that PIA would commence at all three facilities on 7 September 2023.

The action taken will include numerous work bans leading up to complete work stoppages.

This legal PIA has already been sanctioned by Australia’s Fair Work Commission.

Union members have voiced their disappointment with the petrochemical company’s refusal to accept that an industry-standard agreement should apply to their workforce.

Offshore Alliance members at Shell’s LNG facilities secured an EA last year after 76 days of PIA while members at INPEX secured an EA in 2022.

Representatives for the union at Woodside were also able to successfully negotiate an in-principle agreement with a vote on the EA to follow in the coming weeks.

This means that Chevron is the only major company in the WA gas fields without an industry standard EA covering its workers.

Offshore Alliance spokesperson and AWU WA Secretary Brad Gandy said: “We were disappointed to see Shell engage in an ideological battle with the union last year and, as a result, losing up to $1.5 billion in lost production during 76 days of industrial action because we knew achieving a resolution would be so easy.

“We strongly advise Chevron to meet with our members and iron out each point of contention one by one. Our members at Chevron quite reasonably just want terms and conditions of employment that meet the industry standard, some say over rosters to ensure they’re family-friendly, and job security so they can’t be replaced by temporary labour hire employees.

“They also want to reach an agreement on other matters relating to overcycle, training standards, rates of pay, and travel arrangements. After this humiliating result at the ballot box with proposed enterprise agreements that Chevron touted as a potential solution to the ongoing dispute, Chevron’s only real option is to change tack and take our members’ claims seriously,” said Gandy.