Trouble plagued Snowy 2.0 workers to strike for 24 hours

More than 1000 workers on Australia’s biggest renewable energy project will strike for 24 hours on Wednesday.

Unions have given notice of the 24-hour strike.

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More than 1000 workers on Australia’s biggest renewable energy project, the trouble plagued Snowy 2.0, will strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, bringing a halt to tunnelling work after rejecting a revised pay offer by contractor Webuild.

In an escalation of the dispute, unions have given notice of the 24-hour strike and flagged further industrial action next week in support of pay rises totalling more than 30 per cent over four years.

Having previously rejected a 23 per cent pay rise offer over four years, the Australian Workers Union said the workers had rejected a fresh offer from Webuild which increased a proposed upfront pay rise and brought forward proposed increases in overtime and night shift loading by about 18 months.

In a note to staff, Webuild said the offer, which also included increases in some allowances, “represented a new benchmark for projects in NSW”. It said the impact on take-home pay over the life of the agreement would be significant but said the offer was conditional on industrial action being avoided.

Webuild has applied to the Fair Work Commission for its assistance to enable bargaining to progress. “The employer continues to negotiate in good faith for a replacement agreement with relevant bargaining representatives,” the company said on Monday.

The fly-in fly out employees earn more than $200,000 annually on the government-owned $12bn hydro project and want an upfront payment to bring workers into line with tunnel wage rates in Melbourne where an entry-level tunneller can be paid $230,000 annually and more experienced tunnellers earn more than $300,000 a year, followed by 6 per cent annual pay rises.

AWU NSW secretary Tony Callinan told The Australian the strike would mean that “all tunnel excavation will definitely cease, and most of the other productive work on the project will be all shut down”.

“Twenty four hours is the initial stoppage on Wednesday, and our delegates are in the process of planning follow-up action for early next week,” he said.

As well as the pay rises, unions are seeking 15 per cent superannuation, better food, flights exclusively from Canberra Airport, triple time on public holidays; two “mental health” days off each year; more cleaning staff; a $140-a-day camp allowance, accrued sick leave paid out at the end of employment; updated parental leave; a same job same pay clause; and double time for working in the rain.

“Webuild wasted the first 10 weeks of negotiations by refusing to engage, they didn’t respond at all to the log of claims the AWU put to them on behalf of our 1000 odd members in mid January,” Mr Callinan said.

“Our members have had enough of the games, that’s why they’re taking 24 hours of protected industrial action on Wednesday.

The Snowy 2.0 site in Kosciuszko National Park in NSW. Picture: Martin Ollman

“All our members want is to be paid the same money for the same work as those working for the same company in Melbourne on the North East Link project. And those members get to go home each night to their families.”

Mr Callinan said the workers on Snowy 2.0 “live and work in the Snowy Mountains in the middle of winter and when they’re not underground tunneling they’ve confined to spartan work camps”.

“They work 14 day shifts of 12 hours then have 7 days off, then they fly back for 14 night shifts of 12 hours, and in between they live in work camps where it’s just a mess hall and a room to sleep in,” “Even the food is terrible - it’s so bad it was the subject of an industrial stoppage when members’ found maggots in the chicken.”

“It should be obvious to anyone that our members working in the wilderness for two weeks straight would expect to be paid the same as workers in Melbourne who go home with their families each night,” he said.

Mr Callinan said the bargaining involving four unions representing 1400 workers had been very difficult.