Media release – Communications, Electrical & Plumbing Union, 31 August 2022
HYDRO TASMANIA NOT GIVING A DAM ABOUT WORKERS MEANS STRIKE TO START
Workers at Hydro Tasmania who kept the lights on during the pandemic are preparing to take industrial action for the first time in over a decade due to the hypocrisy of extreme pay inequity.
Workers can’t pay the bills or go to the bank with a pat on the back or a good job mate.
There can’t be any guarantee that the impending industrial action won’t cause rolling power black outs across the state, therefore workers ask the public to be patient and supportive of them while they fight for a better life for themselves and their families. Hydro Tasmania’s current offer would see some workers at Hydro Tasmania go backwards at a time when the cost of living is increasing.
Hydro is probably the worst example of corporate waste in an essential public service. Bosses paid eye watering sums with no relative skill to provide a public service. This industrial action will clearly demonstrate whose labour should have higher value, and we look forward to seeing how overpaid management deal with a situation made of their greed.
It’s time for Hydro Tasmania to give back to the community and its workforce, a return to good job opportunities with good pay and conditions and good apprenticeships, it should be a no brainer for any government-owned corporation.
“Hydro employees feel disrespected and undervalued by Hydro Tasmania and morale is at an all-time low.” said Chris Clark, an organiser from the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union. “How is it that we can have two workers with the same qualifications, skills and experience working side by side with one taking home 15% less than the other?”
Hydro Tasmania has an attraction and retention problem. It’s not like they didn’t know the power generation industry was facing a skills crisis, their own studies highlighted this ten years ago. With Battery of the Nation and Rewiring the Nation projects about to kick off or already underway, you would think Hydro Tasmania would be on the front foot in building its current skills base, but the fact is, Hydro Tasmania finds themselves in a position where they can’t appropriately supervise and/or train apprentices, which is unforgivable for any government owed entity. It’s an embarrassment that Tasmania’s public owned energy generator which should be the pinnacle of training and industry skills is the poster child of a failed system.
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think, that management see themselves as more than able to enrich themselves on the proceeds of selling Tassie’s clean, green power, yet they fail to see the house of cards they have built doesn’t future proof its workforce that is crucial for keeping the lights on, which is also a centrepiece of the governments budget via energy sales.
Hydro workers say enough is enough.
