The union brought the court application against the lead contractor for the $4 billion EnergyConnect interconnector, Elecnor, after its project and construction managers repeatedly refused to allow union officials to speak to workers supplied by a third party on a labour hire agreement at the mixed business and housing complex attached to their worksite, which was overseen by a security guard.
The company claimed that the workers were not electrical workers and that the remote purpose-built camp was not a worksite but a “residential area.” The court dismissed this argument.
ETU NSW and ACT Secretary Allen Hicks welcomed the Federal Court decision.
“The ETU has a lawful right to enter workplaces to represent the interests of our members working in the transmission construction industry and this has been upheld by the Federal Court,” he said.
“It is disgraceful that a company building the largest transmission project in the country would seek to prevent its workers from speaking to their lawful union representatives on routine visits.”
“Finally, the company has been forced to see sense.”
ETU National Secretary Michael Wright said the court victory should put energy transition projects on notice that neither the Australian community nor its courts would accept an energy transition powered by exploitation that compromised on safety.
“Today’s court decision is a message to every employer, financier, lead contractor or subcontractor working on Australia’s energy transition,” Wright said.
“The message is that Australia’s energy transition will fail unless it is built on reliable, well-paid union jobs that put workers’ safety, communities and families first.”
“It is a warning that nobody wants an energy transition that compromises safety, that exploits workers, that locks out workers’ representatives and that breaks the law and disregards workers’ basic rights.”
“Any company that thinks it can cut corners on safety, cut wages through labour hire and cut unionised labour out of energy transition should read it very carefully and reconsider their position.”
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.