A proposed agreement that sought to reduce working days each roster period from 26 to 23 days for the Gorgon LNG project's largest contractor has been voted down.
The AWU expects employees at Esso Australia's Bass Strait oil operations to reject the company's proposed new enterprise agreements, which include shifting from seven-day to 14-day roster cycles for offshore workers.
The massive $54 billion Gorgon LNG project could gain an assurance of industrial peace for the largest part of its workforce, if workers employed by one of its major contractors accept a new FWC-brokered enterprise deal with fewer working days in each roster cycle.
The Federal Court has reserved its decision in a case in which Esso Australia argues that members of the AWU took unprotected industrial action, which cut its oil and gas production in Bass Strait in March and April.
The AiG and unions are at odds over time in lieu and make-up pay provisions in modern awards, with the employer group critical of an AMWU push to calculate TOIL at overtime rates and the ACTU in turn arguing the AiG's proposal would reduce existing entitlements.
Unions are seeking authorisation for industrial action at the massive Gorgon gas project, after workers employed by its largest contractor resoundingly voted down an agreement that would have provided an extra day off in each 35-day roster cycle.
The massive Gorgon LNG project's largest contractor is putting a revised roster arrangement to workers who last year rejected a proposal that would have reduced their consecutive working days from 26 to 23.
A tribunal has found an employee's severe morning sickness is a "disability" but has rejected the bulk of her discrimination claims, including that her employer failed to make reasonable changes to her hours and conditions.
The ANZ bank has offered annual pay rises of between 3.75% to 5.25% over two years if employees accept a new enterprise agreement, while threatening to pay a single annual increase of between 3% to 4.5% if it is rejected.
