Offshore Alliance members at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone Downstream facilities have voted to endorse taking protected industrial action should the global petrochemical company fail to offer them an industry standard Enterprise Agreement in current negotiations.
There has been a spate of companies across the Western Australian gasfields inking Enterprise Agreements (EA) with the Offshore Alliance to cover their workers in the last few years.
Workers at Shell’s LNG facilities secured an EA this time last year after 76 days of protected industrial action. Workers at INPEX secured an EA with the Alliance in 2022. And earlier today Offshore Alliance employee representatives at Woodside endorsed an in-principle agreement negotiated with the company.
This leaves Chevron out in the cold with no industry standard EA covering its workforce.
Over 450 workers at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone Downstream facilities in Western Australia’s North West today voted 99% in favour of taking Protected Industrial Action to progress their bargaining claims in a ballot ordered by the Fair Work Commission.
Protected Industrial Action could include a range of work bans including refusing to load tankers or vessels with LNG or condensate, up to complete stoppages of work.
Offshore Alliance Members at Chevron have still not reached agreement on several key claims including job security, agreed rosters, mutual agreement on transfers to other Chevron worksites, mutual agreement on the working of overcycle, training standards, travel arrangements and rates of pay.
Members are seeking remuneration outcomes which align with benchmark industry standards that apply to Chevron’s contemporaries in Shell, INPEX and are soon to apply to Woodside. In negotiations to date, Chevron has proposed remuneration terms are lower than some Tier 2 oil and gas operators in Australian waters.
Unlike Woodside, which has reached a deal with the Alliance and is likely to be endorsed at a mass meeting of members tonight, in recent days Chevron has attempted to circumvent union representatives by offering an Enterprise Agreement to their workers that isn’t supported by their union, something that Offshore Alliance spokesperson, AWU WA Secretary Brad Gandy says is nothing more than a waste of time.
“Chevron has chosen to roll out agreements to its Gorgon and Wheatstone Downstream workforce that are not supported by the Alliance as they do not address key bargaining claims and do not meet the industry standard set by Offshore Alliance members at other facilities,” says Mr Gandy.
“It’s baffling that Chevron management has decided to engage in what is essentially a time wasting exercise when the vast majority of its employees are voting on whether to approve industrial action.
“The Alliance will be strongly recommending to members to vote ‘no’ to these agreements, just as it did when Chevron did this for the Wheatstone Platform workforce.
“The result of that ballot was a 98% ‘no’ vote,” says Mr Gandy.
