Regional NSW will lose more than $1 billion in wages out of its economy and skilled workers if 1400 jobs are cut from Essential Energy, the Electrical Trades Union has warned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
NSW branch secretary Steve Butler said the organisation had received correspondence from the network that reported of the 1400 jobs it believed were unfunded - which he said was about one third of the Essential Energy workforce.
It comes after a decision by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) that is expected to reduce the bills of Essential Energy and the two other network's residential customers, but that the networks say has left them without funding for an estimated total of 2750 jobs from July 1.
An Essential Energy spokesman said the company was still working through the impacts of the decision by the AER and that no decision had been made about the location of the job reductions.
Mr Butler warned regional NSW to brace for a blow that would come if one-third of Essential Energy jobs were slashed.
"(The reductions) will not be uniform across all areas. . . but wherever there are Essential Energy employees there are likely to be job losses because of the size of the cuts," he said.
The secretary said every 10 jobs was equivalent to $1 million, so the regional economy would lose $1.4 billion paid in wages to 1400 workers.
"Obviously there's a lot of workers and their families affected but it's not only them," he said.
"The knock-on effect will be incredibly dramatic, it will really be a major impetus in the loss of skills and workers and further adds to the exodus of people from the regions to the city."
Networks NSW said in a statement issued on Friday chief executive officer Vince Graham had met with unions and a staff briefing was issued, explaining the challenges, and providing proposals to address the necessary adjustments to the size of the current workforce.
