TAS Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union members agree to pause industrial action amid wild weather
TasNetworks says union members taking industrial action have agreed to resume fixing power outages while Tasmania is lashed by wild winds this week. But the pay dispute isn't over, with the workers set to resume industrial action once the weather improves.
Category
đź“ş
TVTranscript
00:00In the depths of a Tasmanian winter, with dire weather on the way, a primary school
00:07is without power.
00:09On Sunday, Devonport dad Chris Anderson got a text from his kid's school saying without
00:14heating classrooms will be cold on Monday.
00:16They sent through a message last night just to let parents know that they were still going
00:20to open, which was really good, and just saying that, look, things will be a bit different,
00:25but to dress warmly.
00:27Power outages affecting hundreds of Tasmanians were not being repaired while TasNetwork staff
00:31strike over pay and conditions.
00:34I'm supportive of people getting paid what they should be paid, and people's right to
00:39protest, but it is frustrating for us being caught in the middle.
00:43Late on Monday, TasNetwork CEO Sean McGoldrick said an agreement had been reached for the
00:48Communications, Electrical and Plumbing union members to return to work, but only while
00:53the wild weather lasts.
00:55So with this provision now, I will get my crews back into the field as quickly as possible,
01:00and we'll repair the networks that are already under trash, and we will get ready then to
01:06recover networks as they're damaged through the coming days.
01:09The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting wild weather and damaging winds for all of Tasmania
01:15in the coming days.
01:16That's likely to cause even more power outages and further delay repairs for those already
01:21without power.
01:23The union says they warned TasNetworks a month ago that these delays could happen, so those
01:27without power should not blame its members.
01:30If I was those customers, I would be extremely disappointed in the minister and the TasNetworks
01:35board and the CEO.
01:37Our members didn't want to have to take this industrial action, and that's why we warned
01:40in advance that this would happen.
01:42Once the weather clears, industrial action is set to resume, unless the union and TasNetworks
01:48can reach agreement over a new pay deal.