Offshore Alliance members at Woodside last night endorsed an in-principle agreement thrashed out by their negotiating team in a marathon session on Wednesday.
Members approved moving forward with the in-principle agreement at a meeting at 19.30 (WST) last night.
The final draft of the Enterprise Agreement (EA) is currently being drafted by Woodside and the Offshore Alliance will be provided a copy of this document on Monday for the union to consider its drafting.
In a show of good faith and on the basis of member support, the Offshore Alliance has confirmed with the company that members will not engage in any strike action whilst the process to finalise and have the agreement formally voted on takes place.
The proposed EA represents a significant improvement in the employment conditions of members working on the Woodside Platforms (Goodwyn Alpha, North Rankin Complex and Angel) and is the outcome of a workforce being united in its determination to secure an EA with industry standard rates and conditions.
The proposed EA gets rid of punitive performance reviews which impact remuneration, removing subjective criteria from the classification structure and ensuring key employment terms can only be changed with agreement from affected employees.
The proposed EA also prevents employees being replaced by labour hire or contractors, locking in permanent, direct jobs with Woodside on the platforms.
Rosters will also be locked in as a 2-2-2-4 pattern and these rosters cannot be changed unless the majority of employees agree. This includes temporary rosters.
The proposed agreement also provides improved overcycle conditions, dispute resolution and a significant increase in remuneration for all workers covered.
The Offshore Alliance is an alliance between The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).
Offshore Alliance spokesperson, AWU WA Secretary Brad Gandy, said Offshore Alliance members have overwhelmingly endorsed the improved terms and conditions in the proposed new EA.
“Offshore Alliance members at Woodside will now have transparent classifications and career progression, roster certainty and job security,” says Mr Gandy.
“Roster changes and poor rosters in general can have an enormous impact on workers and their families.
“Once the agreement is voted up and approved, Offshore Alliance members at Woodside will have certainty around their future rosters because they must agree to any changes to rosters proposed by Woodside.
“Offshore Alliance members at Woodside are also now secure in their employment going forward as the agreement removes Woodside’s ability to contract out direct jobs to lower wage contractors.
“This is consistent with other agreements in the industry and is especially important in the hydrocarbons sector, where the contracting out of work and insecure employment has exploded in the past decade,” says Mr Gandy.
