Global oil and gas corporation Chevron Australia has been issued a notice of intention of protected industrial action by Offshore Alliance members stationed at the company’s Western Australian gas facilities.
Members at the company’s Gorgon, Wheatstone Downstream and Wheatstone Platform have each voted almost unanimously in favour of over 20 types of industrial action — including several work bans and complete suspension of operations.
The Offshore Alliance will commence action across all three facilities on 7 September 2023.
Union members at Chevron have still not reached an agreement on several key claims including pay rates, job security, agreed rosters, site transfer agreements, training standards, travel arrangements and the workings of over cycle.
In all negotiations to date, Chevron has proposed remunerations terms lower than some Tier 2 oil and gas operators in Australia.
Offshore Alliance spokesperson and AWU WA Secretary Brad Gandy said the organisation’s members at Chevron would prefer to have this matter resolved without resorting to industrial action.
“Our members at Chevron aren’t being unreasonable in their claims and if Chevron could just accept that it must provide terms and conditions of employment that meet the industry standard we could settle this matter in a matter of hours.
“Our members want some say over rosters to ensure they are family friendly, job security so they can’t be replaced by temporary labour hire employees and to reach agreement on other matters relating to overcycle, training standards, travel arrangements and rates of pay,” said Gandy.
A Chevron Australia spokesperson said: “While we don’t believe that industrial action is necessary for agreement to be reached, we recognise employees have the right to take protected industrial action. We will continue to take steps to maintain safe and reliable operations in the event of disruption at our facilities. We will also continue to work through the bargaining process as we seek outcomes that are in the interests of both employees and the company.”
Many companies across the Western Australian gasfields (including Shell, INPEX and Woodside Energy) have successfully negotiated Enterprise Agreements (EA) with Offshore Alliance to cover their workers over the last few years.
Chevron remains as the only major operator without an industry standard EA covering its workers.