Electrical Trades Union NSW secretary Dave McKinley met with members in Dubbo, briefing them on the ‘Change the Rules’ campaign and hearing first-hand about how their families are being impacted by what he says is a broken system.

“Our members know the system is broken, they have seen wages stagnate, job security reduced, penalty rates being cut, and big business taking more than its fair share,” Mr McKinley said.

“In recent years, our members at major businesses like Essential Energy have seen how employers can use the system to prevent them from getting a fair deal, with industrial action effectively banned, and the ability of management to threaten to rip up workplace agreements if workers don’t accept cuts to conditions.

“At the same time, redundancies, outsourcing, casualisation, and the growing use of labour hire have stripped away job security.

“Big business has been making record profits, but that money isn’t being shared around, with workers enduring stagnant wages and apprentice numbers plummeting.”

However, an Essential Energy spokesman said since 2012, Essential Energy and its employees have been continually transforming to improve efficiency and productivity and maintain downward pressure on network charges for customers, without compromising safety or reliability.

“This transformation has enabled real network charge decreases of 40 per cent compared to 2012-2013 for the typical residential customer,” he said 

“Essential Energy successfully negotiated a new Enterprise Agreement with its employees and the relevant unions late last year which was settled ahead of schedule and provides four pay increases to employees during its three-and-a-half-year term. The first two per cent increase applied from January 1, 2018, and a subsequent one per cent increase from July 1 2018. At the same time, Essential Energy appointed 25 apprentices this year and is recruiting a further 31 apprentices, including six Indigenous pre-employment trainees, as part of its 2019 intake.”

But Mr McKinley said in the electricity sector job numbers have been slashed, services reduced and prices charged to consumers have continued to rise.

“Stagnant wages, cuts to penalty rates, and a lack of job security have all reduced the spending power of working families, having flow-on impacts throughout local economies,” he said. “That’s why we are campaigning to give working people more secure work and improved wages.”