THE Electrical Trades Union and The Services Union have accused the state government of blatant political interference in enterprise bargaining negotiations, after it announced a one-off employment security offer for electricity workers in Energex, Ergon and Powerlink.
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Stuart Traill, of the ETU, said the political interference last week was aimed at getting substandard agreements that stripped away wages and conditions, safety standards and apprentice numbers, over the line.
The agreements are expected to go out to ballot within days.
Mr Traill said all recently expired agreements already contained job security clauses.
‘‘They are offering nothing we don’t already have, in fact they’re worse; they take away job security for future employees,” Mr Traill said.
“This is a disgraceful, deceitful way of bullying workers to accept agreements that have not been fully negotiated; agreements that are not approved by the union parties because they do not provide adequate safeguards around safety issues.
‘‘They also slash apprentice numbers and rip away wages and conditions through the unfettered use of contractors.
‘‘We have long argued that in the current climate, given that all three companies are in the gun for privatisation if the LNP wins the state election which is due within months, we should look to roll over current conditions for a period of time until workers know what their future looks like.’’
TSU secretary Neil Henderson said the companies had embarked on an extraordinary campaign of spin and propaganda to strong-arm workers into accepting their offers which are expected to be out to ballot within days.
‘‘We have seen an unrelenting internal media campaign that has sought to drown out all other opinions other than those promoted by the companies. In my many years of negotiating enterprise agreements I have never seen such blatant manipulation and the government’s intervention was the last straw,’’ Mr Henderson said.
‘‘We will be urging all electricity workers to look beyond the spin and stand up for their jobs and their industry and reject the offers.
‘‘The facts are clear, while we support job security, we are of the belief it should never have been considered for removal anyway, and therefore it should never have been used as a wedge to undermine, current conditions, safety provisions and future jobs.’’
Mr Traill issued a warning to regional communities if the agreements got up.
‘‘These agreements if approved will see the disintegration of regional jobs in areas that are already reeling from high unemployment; areas such as Cairns, Wide Bay and Ipswich will be severely hit as will regional and remote areas.’’
