Maryvale mill stand downs: Workers to be stood down on Christmas Eve

The Latrobe Valley’s biggest employer Maryvale Paper Mill will suspend white paper production and stand down workers.

About 220 of Maryvale mill’s 850 workers operate the white paper processing line, using pulp sourced from native forest harvested harwood logs.

Opal Australian Paper is preparing to stand down workers at its Maryvale mill on Christmas Eve, in the wake of a pulp-log shortage brought on by environmentalists’ legal action.

“VicForests’ operations remain suspended and as a result, the lack of wood supply is continuing to impact the Maryvale Mill,” Opal stated.

“We anticipate that our white paper production may be potentially impacted from the third week of December onwards.

“As a consequence, temporary stand downs or a reduction in working arrangements affecting a small number of work groups at the Maryvale Mill may become necessary.”

About 220 of the mill’s 850 workers operate Maryvale’s white paper processing and converting room, producing the company’s signature Reflex copy paper from mainly native forest hardwood pulp logs.

“This is a challenging situation with the potential to create financial and production difficulties for Opal Australian Paper,” the company stated.

“Opal is investigating a number of alternative wood supply options however, unfortunately, to date, sufficient volumes are not available.

“We are continuing to consult on this issue with our team members” and “work through this situation with our customers”.

VicForests, which supplies Maryvale and 12 saw mills with hardwood logs, was forced to halt harvesting last month in its most productive forests – the Central Highlands and East Gippsland, following a Supreme Court ruling.

Justice Melinda Richards ordered that all coupes must be resurveyed to protect greater and yellow-bellied gliders, and slashed the quantity of timber that could be harvested in coupes where the possum was detected.

The re-survey work will take months, with VicForests and Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning bureaucrats pointing their fingers at each other on who is responsible.

Harvest and haulage contractors have warned that even if the survey work is redone, the gliders are so common most coupes will be unviable.

Meanwhile, VicForests has moved to stop harvesting in the Tambo region, to protect itself from legal action, until it sorts out what it can do in the wake of the judgement.

Up until now contractors were able cut down 60 per cent of the trees in a coupe, leaving 40 per cent either standing in the harvest zone or in stream-side buffer and protection areas around trees where gliders had been spotted.

But Justice Richards has ordered VicForests and its contractors can cut only 40 per cent of the timber available in the harvestable area of the coupe where a possum is found, excluding buffer and protection zones.

The powerful Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union has also accused Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning of undermining attempts to source logs for the Maryvale mill.