Media release – Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, 4 October 2022

STRIKE ACTION BEGINS AT HYDRO TASMANIA

The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union today said essential workers at Hydro Tasmania are fed up with the lack of progress made with negotiations for their new enterprise agreement. Fifteen meetings have taken place over 6 months, Hydro Tasmania’s offer was voted down by its workers and all CEPU members claims have been rejected by Hydro Tasmania. Workers have decided enough is enough and will commence rolling strike action with a full day strike on Wednesday, 5th of October.

These strikes will be state-wide and will continue indefinitely, they will throw planned essential routine maintenance and outages into chaos and could even end up in rolling blackouts in some areas.

“The blame for this impending mayhem should be laid at the feet of Hydro Tasmania’s management team and the board, like a lot of workers around the country and the world, CEPU members have been left with no choice but to fight for a fair and reasonable outcome,” CEPU State Organiser Chris Clark said.

“It’s a disgrace and hypocritical when executives on salaries of half a million dollars a year, plus huge 15% bonuses, can always find money down the back of the couch when it suits their own needs or when millions of dollars are spent on golden handshakes to CEO’s and executives that have left Hydro Tasmanian over the years, but it’s too expensive to put a fair and reasonable offer on the table for the workers keeping the lights on,” said Mr Clark.

“We live in a day and age where every time workers ask for a fair share, they get told there isn’t enough to go around, workers deserve a pay increase that keeps up with the cost of living now and into the future as a bare minimum, enough is enough” Mr. Clark said.

Negotiations aren’t just about money; workplace culture is also very important. Hydro Tasmania has been falling apart at the seams for some time.

• CEO’s coming and going,

• The procurement of substandard parts and equipment costing the GBE millions in lost production,

• 100’s of years of skills and knowledge walking out the door due to the toxic work environment,

• Alleged Fringe Benefits Tax bungles around the use of work vehicles,

• The Bass Link debacle,

• Poor supervision of apprentices,

• Understaffing,

• And now strike action

Anyone else that had resided over such poor management outcomes would have been sacked long ago, who knows why more heads haven’t rolled at Hydro yet, it’s not good enough.

It’s just another example of a failed Government Business Enterprise model, where management and the board are more focused on their own individual KPI driven bonuses than delivering good outcomes for the Tasmanian community who built and own Hydro Tasmania, it’s embarrassing.

It also begs the questions, are we being led up the garden path with the hype around the Marinus Link and Battery of the Nation projects, if skeleton crews and wage suppression is the preferred business model of the Liberal state government what will workers in the private sector be looking at? When can workers expect that good paying jobs becomes the focus for creating a better future rather than a continued race to the bottom to maximise profits?