As reported in PACE last week, electricity distributor Essential Energy now has the power to cut 600 jobs after a ruling by the Fair Work Commission. According to Electrical Trades Union organiser Mick Koppie, many NSW workers say they have been left in the dark, wondering when and where these cuts will be taking place.
As a response to this, Koppie scheduled a meeting with the 90 workers at the Queanbeyan depot for Tuesday morning, however it was cancelled as workers were not entitled to protected action under their enterprise agreement, according to The Canberra Times.
Essential Energy currently has 222 employees at Queanbeyan, Goulburn, Cooma, Yass and Braidwood depots and offices.
“In places like Boorowa, Yass and Harden the service will virtually appear,” Koppie told The Times.
“The income of the town will reduce and the reliability of the service will drop so where you used to get power restored in hours it will take days.”
Essential Energy chief executive, Gary Humphreys, has assured the redundancies will occur over two to three years, with none to occur before Christmas.
60 meetings are scheduled with Essential Energy staff across the state to inform workers about the company’s plans for the future, while there are talks that the NSW government will assist laid-off workers in finding new jobs.