Protected industrial action ends at Endeavour Energy

Endeavour Energy has welcomed the Fair Work Commission’s Deputy President Roberts decision to order on 6 November an intractable bargaining declaration under s235 (1) of the Fair Work Act.

The declaration immediately ends protected industrial action by the ETU at Endeavour Energy.

Deputy President Roberts’ decision will bring relief to customers and developers trying to safely connect homes, businesses, Federal and State Significant Projects, hospitals and social housing to its network.

Endeavour Energy will now focus on assisting affected businesses to help address the significant backlog of connections to our network.

Helping businesses will be a key priority while ensuring we maintain our commitment to the health and safety of our workforce with the big work program ahead.

The intractable bargaining dispute follows exhaustive attempts by Endeavour Energy to finalise a new enterprise agreement, which nominally expired in December 2023.

We held over 60 meetings with the bargaining team to try and reach an agreement.

Endeavour Energy’s most recent wage offer featured record wage increases, coupled with a package of improved conditions without any productivity or efficiency trade-offs.

The ETU and a recent employee vote rejected a $6,500 upfront payment (including tax & super) and wage increases of 15.7% plus 0.5% super over four years, with superannuation increasing to 17% during the life of the Agreement.

Endeavour Energy had sought the assistance of the Fair Work Commission to mediate between the parties and repeatedly asked the ETU to pause protected industrial bargaining to relieve the pressure on customers seeking to connect to the network.

Endeavour Energy had also engaged an independent mediator with no agreed outcome.

Protected industrial action has had a devastating impact on many businesses that our customers and communities depend on – they have been the innocent parties in this dispute and so this is welcome development.

The bargaining representatives will now participate in a 14-day post-declaration negotiation period.

The Fair Work Commission determined that a 14-day negotiation period was appropriate to provide the best chance of narrowing the considerable number of issues in dispute, to make the subsequent proceedings more efficient and timely.

The post declaration negotiation period finishes on 20 November 2024. 

Any matters that remain outstanding at the end of the post-declaration negotiation period will be arbitrated by the Fair Work Commission as part of a legal process.