‘No agreement’: Chevron, unions head to FWC on LNG dispute
Chevron’s final mediated talks with unions seeking to resolve an industrial dispute that has disrupted operations across three LNG sites in Western Australia have ended with no deal.
The opposing sides will head to a Fair Work Commission hearing on Friday to rule on the US major’s application for an arbitrated decision.
“No agreement has been reached with the unions following further conciliation sessions held this week with the Fair Work Commission,” a Chevron Australia spokesman said late on Wednesday after the final talks ahead of Friday’s sitting of the full bench of the FWC in Sydney.
Chevron’s Wheatstone facility is one of Western Australia’s biggest LNG exporters.
The FWC will decide Chevron’s request for a declaration of “intractable bargaining” which, if successful, would result in an arbitrated decision to resolve the dispute and bring industrial action at the Wheatstone offshore gas platform and the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG plants to an end.
The case is expected to take a couple of weeks, given it is the first time the intractable bargaining laws introduced by the Albanese government have been tested.
The two Chevron-led LNG ventures account for about 7 per cent of global LNG supply, and worries about potential disruptions to exports have caused volatility in European gas prices.
The Offshore Alliance – comprising the Australian Workers’ Union and the Maritime Union of Australia – is seeking improved terms and conditions for both offshore platform workers and onshore LNG workers, and says that Chevron is offering “tier-two” terms, worse than that agreed at other offshore operators including Woodside Energy, Shell and Inpex Corporation.
But Chevron says it has offered similar terms to its rivals. It has told
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