Recent revelations in the Saturday Mercury (10 October, 2015, Mercury HERE ) of a corruption investigation into high levels of one of Tasmania’s major trading partners in China has opened up fresh concerns for over 200 Employees of Hydro Tasmania who are currently facing the prospect of being moved out of Hydro into a Chinese government majority owned company before March next year.
Hydro Tasmania recently announced it was investigating moving its Consulting division, Entura out of Tasmanian ownership, and into a new venture that is to be majority owned by Power China, a Chinese state owned business.
Hydro Tasmania’s consulting division currently employs well over 200 highly specialised renewable energy experts in the fields of Engineering, Science, Project Management and specialised Technical fields.
These staff collectively hold the past 50 years of intellectual property of Hydro Tasmania and have a comprehensive knowledge of Tasmania’s and Australia’s Power and Water infrastructure.
Members of Professionals Australia (PA) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) at Hydro Tasmania’s consulting division are extremely concerned about the operations of any new venture and have raised extensive questions, including what guarantees would be put on their employment, who would own Tasmania’s intellectual property currently held in the consulting division, and who would dictate the direction of the business if Hydro Tasmania was only a minority shareholder? So far the vast bulk of these questions have been unanswered.
Unions have also raised concerns about the security of local jobs to both Hydro Tasmania and the State Government after it was revealed that the joint venture partner, Power China has already signed an MOU with the Victorian state government to base its operations out of Melbourne.
“Both Hydro and the State Government have been repeatedly asked to guarantee that current jobs will be retained for a period if this part of Hydro is sold or traded, and on all occasions they have failed to provide this assurance to their staff” Said Luke Crowley of Professionals Australia.
“In light of these new corruption concerns, we call on Hydro Tasmania and the State Government to properly assess any group that may be handed the name and staff of Hydro Tasmania’s renewable Energy business and to commit to retaining these highly skilled local jobs and the good name of the organisation” said John Short, of the AMWU.
