Statement on Protected Industrial Action

Endeavour Energy’s highest priority will always be the safety of its employees, customers and communities.

Since 1 February, the Electrical Trades Union has taken protected industrial action each day for 219 days (aside from 2). They have cancelled 1800 planned outages, needed to work safely on the network, often with less than 30 minutes notice. This has incurred large costs for many developers and contractors.  It has also created significant delays to major developments across Endeavour Energy’s area including:

• New housing stock, where 51 residential subdivisions across 42 developers are  delayed by months, including Landcom developments that offer social housing stock.
• Private electrical contractors are losing between $10-30k for each cancelled planned outage. These are small businesses employing tradies and apprentices and some are telling us they are not likely to survive
• Multiple local councils have postponed planned maintenance including road upgrades and pole relocations as they cannot afford to incur large losses due of cancelled planned outages due to PIA that would be passed onto rate payers. They are instead choosing to wait until PIA is resolved.
• State Significant infrastructure including around the Aerotropolis and Transport for NSW projects, including road widening for the last link of the M7 and M12 connecting roads to the new Western Sydney International Airport.
• New hospital developments on the South Coast and large warehouse developments across Western Sydney.
• Endeavour Energy’s own maintenance program is also impacted, with estimations of a year’s backlog to catch up if protected industrial action was to end this month.
• Families who have had diesel powered generators connected to their homes for months on end. In one case, the ETU refused to remove a generator for five months to the distress of customers in the street who were unable to open windows due to the diesel fumes and noise.
• A primary school at Baulkham Hills was connected to a noisy generator and despite parents, the school and the local member complaining that it was affecting the students, it was not removed until we went to the Fair Work Commission seeking to terminate PIA. We had repeatedly asked the ETU to remove the generator and they had refused.
• In another Western Sydney street, a generator was connected for 11 weeks, severely affecting the health of several residents in the street. After we door knocked residents in the street to check on their welfare and became aware of serious health issues that it was creating, we declared an emergency which meant the ETU had to repair the underground cable to the street and remove the generator.

Our feedback and visits to customers reveals the impact of protected industrial action extends well beyond mere inconvenience and annoyance, impacting life support customers, customers living with chronic disease, the frail and the very young.

We have several small businesses remaining on generators across Western Sydney.

We applied to terminate protected industrial action because it was risking the health, safety and welfare of customers and communities in Greater Western Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, Illawarra and South Coast of NSW. Unfortunately, the application was dismissed by the Fair Work Commission, with the impact of the actions on customers being considered an inconvenience.

The ETU waited until we had sought to terminate protected industrial action before they agreed to undertake critical repairs, but only to four electrical feeders that have been at risk of failure since protected industrial action commenced in February 2024 and repairs to cables to a school that had a large diesel generator sitting outside classrooms from 5 June until 13 August.

The ETU’s legal team argued in the Fair Work Commission that the Fair Work Act allows for the ‘incovenience, discomfort, annoyance and dissatisfaction’ from protected industrial action.

As a result of the Fair Work hearing, we now have assurances that the safety commitment agreed at the start of PIA will be adhered to by the ETU along with emergencies declared by Endeavour Energy.

We remain deeply concerned that protected industrial action continues to have a significant impact on the safety, health and welfare of members of our community.

The ETU rejected Endeavour Energy’s second wages offer of $1000 from a yes vote, and increases of 5.25% in Year 1, 3.25% in year 2 and 3% in year 3, with a CPI safety net for year 2 and 3, whichever is higher.

The ETU has refused to reconsider its original claim of 24% wage increases over three years and refused to participate in the FWC’s 240 process to resolve bargaining disputes. They have also not offered any productivity or efficiency offsets for their claims.

Endeavour Energy employees enjoy above average working conditions and wages including:

• average remuneration of $153,677 for employees covered by the EA (2022-2023 financial year, including base salary, allowances, overtime, bonuses, and superannuation)
• unlimited sick leave
• 16.5% superannuation
• significant long service leave entitlements, over double the NSW legislated amount, eg an employee with 20 years of service enjoys 35 weeks of long service leave.
• access to six months of paid parental leave for either parent during which time Endeavour Energy pays superannuation on both paid and unpaid parental leave.
• access to an annual $1000 bonus payment if we achieve set business targets.

Endeavour Energy has taken multiple steps to minimise the impact of the ETU’s Protected Industrial Action on our customers and communities, including:

• agreeing, in principle to some union requests, subject to any final package
• seeking the help of the FWC to work with both parties to reach agreement. Tthe union refused to participate in the s240 conference with the FWC after initially agreeing to do so
• repeatedly asking the ETU to pause Protected Industrial Action
• asking the ETU to partner with Endeavour Energy in seeking a revised safety and customer commitment from the Fair Work Commission to reduce the impact of the action on customers and developers who had been repeatedly affected
• commencing employer action under s471 to try to minimise the impact of the action on our customers and third parties
• applying to the Fair Work Commission to terminate protected industrial action under s424 of the FW Act, due to the risk to health and safety of our customers and communities, and due to the increasing risk of network security. The Fair Work Commission heard the case on 9 August and dismissed case. Endeavour Energy appealed that decision.
• The matter was mentioned on 19 August and despite Endeavour Energy requesting an expedited hearing the full bench of the Fair Work Commission  will hear it on 15 October 2024.

Endeavour Energy has now engaged the services of an external mediator in the hope of progressing the numerous issues in bargaining that remain at an impasse.

Endeavour Energy urges ETU members to consider the impact of their action on the innocent parties of this dispute, some who have been significantly and unfairly impacted, and focus on reaching a fair and sustainable wages outcome that will not add to ongoing electricity costs for our customers.