Union dispute puts Victoria’s electricity supply at risk
-
7 years ago (2016-12-15)
-
David Flin
Africa
306
Asia
860
Australasia
51
Biomass
8
Climate change
20
Coal
282
Cogeneration
1
Concentrating solar
5
Cyber security
8
Decarbonisation
1
Decentralised energy
5
Demand side management
2
Demand side response
2
Digitalisation
10
Distributed energy
10
Distribution
113
Electric vehicles EVs
4
Emissions
61
Energy management
1
Equipment
2
Europe
1069
Gas
379
Gas engine plant
62
Gas fuel
2
Horizon
2
Hydroelectric
17
Hydrogen
56
Hydropower
116
Latin America
77
Maintenance
3
Marine
1
Metering
2
microgrid
5
Middle East
317
North America
1004
Nuclear
643
Offshore wind
119
Oil
18
Operations
4
Policy
8
Regulations
3
Renewables
758
smart grid
2
Solar
250
Storage
41
substation
8
Tepco
2
Tidal
2
Toshiba
4
Transmission
181
US Senate Washington
4
Wind
241
The Australian energy firm AGL has said that, due to a union dispute with the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy (CFME) union at the Loy Yang coal-fired power station, it will lock out the entire workforce over the Christmas holidays. The lockout at the 2000 MW Loy Yang plant, the largest power plant in Victoria, will result in an indefinite shutdown. Loy Yang provides over half of Victoria’s capacity.
AGL said that the lockout is scheduled to start on December 28, the announcement being made after CFME officials had notified the company of a planned 24 hour strike that day.
The Victorian government has stepped in to terminate the actions by both sides. Natalie Hutchins, Industrial Relations Minister, has launched an application to stop the action to the Fair Work Commission. She said: “This will force both parties to get back to the table, and the Fair Work Commission is the appropriate place for this to occur.”
AGL and the CFME have been in dispute over pay and conditions at the site for the past 15 months. The biggest area of dispute between the two has been the management’s intention to reduce minimum staffing levels.