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Speaker 1: We've been contacted by a number of listeners with concerns

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Speaker 1: about roster changes, an increase in work hours, and significant

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Speaker 1: pay cuts after Monadel first took over the maintenance contract

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Speaker 1: at impex's Darwin facility. Now the Electrical Trade Union is

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Speaker 1: now weighing in and urging the company to fix the

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Speaker 1: roster issues or face a mass exodus, and the NT

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Speaker 1: organizer Dave Hayes Strabes joins me on the line right now.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you Strawbs.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, mate.

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Speaker 1: Tell me what's happened with you know, with these workers

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Speaker 1: following the takeover.

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Speaker 2: Weoll Katie, So since we last spoke, obviously we talked

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Speaker 2: about a shirt change o'c carrying out there and hoping

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Speaker 2: that it would be a smooth transition. With the details

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Speaker 2: that emerged throughout the process. It's not looking that way

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Speaker 2: at all. We're seeing with the new roster arrangements being

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Speaker 2: put forward out there, we're seeing quite significant pay cut

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Speaker 2: for people that were on the previous roster arrangements, and

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Speaker 2: we're seeing up to three hundred hours extra on side

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Speaker 2: a year for the less money arrangements, and a number

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Speaker 2: of other terms and conditions inferior as compared to the

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Speaker 2: previous arrangement with Trace. So they had said that.

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Speaker 1: They weren't going to do this, didn't they They had

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Speaker 1: said that this was going to be a smooth transition

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Speaker 1: and that the workers that have been out there, some

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Speaker 1: of them for a bloody long time, that they weren't

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Speaker 1: going to have to go through.

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Speaker 2: This absolutely accadian and what's happened here. Workers have got

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Speaker 2: a month's notice with this huge change, and now we've

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Speaker 2: got the detail about the remuneration and things like that.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of people weighing up their options. There's

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Speaker 2: a skill shortage throughout the territory and Australia, a couple

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Speaker 2: of families that have packed up and gone already. The

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Speaker 2: uptake for people under the new arrangements signing contracts is

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Speaker 2: extremely low, and we believe that Impacts are going to

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Speaker 2: have trouble or Monodelphas is going to have trouble filling

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Speaker 2: all the positions that they need.

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Speaker 1: Well. I've been contacted by friends who are employed out

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Speaker 1: there or who were who said they're not prepared to

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Speaker 1: sign this contract, that it's garbage.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely gadium for a lot of those employees. They've been

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Speaker 2: out there since construction. They're highly skilled, they've even further

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Speaker 2: their own education to be an asset to that facility

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Speaker 2: as the major Hasard facility out there, and for the

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Speaker 2: treatment of a workforce. To ask them to do the

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Speaker 2: same job under lasser conditions that job they've been doing,

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Speaker 2: many of them for five, six, seven years is a

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Speaker 2: real slap in the face.

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Speaker 1: I mean, strab's one email that we've received in particular,

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Speaker 1: because we've actually received a number of emails from workers

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Speaker 1: out there, but one in particular saying that they're basically

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Speaker 1: expected to work fifty two days a year more or

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Speaker 1: more for less money when they're currently on than what

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Speaker 1: they're currently on with no roster. So you know, like

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Speaker 1: it sounds like people are really upset, that they're really

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Speaker 1: very annoyed about these changes, and I just wonder where

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Speaker 1: to from here.

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Speaker 2: That's absolutely correct, Katie, and what we're founding, what we

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Speaker 2: have a commitment to from Impacts and Monodelphus at the moment,

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Speaker 2: is to review the roster arrangement in February. We wanted

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Speaker 2: that done now. We wanted a better option put forward

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Speaker 2: straight away for people to consider, and we really think

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Speaker 2: that a lot of our members in this situation, are

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Speaker 2: going to look elsewhere. And this is a full locally

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Speaker 2: based Darwin workforce. There is hundreds of tradespeople that work

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Speaker 2: on that plant that live in Darwin. We now see

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Speaker 2: Monodelphus advertising online. Are they going to have to go

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Speaker 2: for five though? This is a real mess, Katie, and

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Speaker 2: we didn't want it to go this way, but we're

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Speaker 2: getting no movement from the employers at this point in time.

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Speaker 1: Straws. How many Territorians are we talking here? Because I

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Speaker 1: know the friends that I know, they are well and

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Speaker 1: truly part of the community, like they have lived here

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Speaker 1: for years, their kids go to local schools here, they're

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Speaker 1: part of your sporting teams, they are part of the community.

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Speaker 1: If we lose them, it has a massive.

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Speaker 2: Impact, absolutely, Katie. So there would have been I think

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Speaker 2: it's about three hundred and eighty employees were imployed with Trace.

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Speaker 2: They expected probably ten or twenty percent attrition under the

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Speaker 2: new arrangement. So we're talking there's still three hundred employees

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Speaker 2: that they need out there. And if I look at

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Speaker 2: the electrical crews at the moment, we've probably got a

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Speaker 2: potential twenty percent uptake of people going out back out

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Speaker 2: there at this point in time, and a lot of

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Speaker 2: those highly schooled trades people working on in the hydrocarbons industry,

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Speaker 2: they're looking elsewhere. There's there's better money, better roster's better

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Speaker 2: jobs available. And obviously, you know the NT is a

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Speaker 2: challenging place to live and this is just a push

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Speaker 2: that they may not have wanted, but they've got now

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Speaker 2: to look elsewhere. I'm going to see that.

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Speaker 1: What is it going to mean for the operations out there?

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Speaker 2: Look, we got concerns about it's things that taken all okay,

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Speaker 2: you know, they can run a safe plan out there,

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Speaker 2: but when things start breaking down, that's where the issues

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Speaker 2: will be. Where this contractor workforce they were the ones

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Speaker 2: that were called upon on the skills to get the

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Speaker 2: place going again. So there's a real risk out there,

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Speaker 2: and we'll be speaking to the regulator about that to

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Speaker 2: keep a good eye on this plant and how it's

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Speaker 2: operating and how their safety critical items for being addressed.

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Speaker 1: All right, So from the union's perspective right now, where

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Speaker 1: to from here? What are the next steps?

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Speaker 2: Well, Katie, you probably find out at the front gated

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Speaker 2: Impacts this afternoon. There'll be quite a number of union

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Speaker 2: members out there having a bit of a discussion about

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Speaker 2: where we go from here, but I think we'll find

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Speaker 2: a lot of people will just talk with their feet.

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Speaker 2: We will continue our conversations with both monodelp With and

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Speaker 2: Impact to try and improve these arrangements and try and

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Speaker 2: keep this workforce in Darwin. And yeah, these people are

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Speaker 2: a big part of the community and we need them,

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Speaker 2: we want them here. Impacts have made those commitments before,

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Speaker 2: but this decision is really a turning that upside down.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are they are their plans to walk off

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Speaker 1: the job and have a mass strike or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: Well, currently, Katie, everyone's been made redundant, so there's no one,

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Speaker 2: there's no unemployed. A few have taken up the contracts

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Speaker 2: arrangements at this point in time, but the vast majority

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Speaker 2: have not. So yeah, they're currently unemployed seeking other work.

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Speaker 2: We've got a number of people that've got our jobs already,

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Speaker 2: trades people that are in demand in Darwin. And why

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Speaker 2: would you work out on a hydrocarbon dangerous facility when

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Speaker 2: you can earn the same money in town working for

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Speaker 2: another contractor so people are taking that option at this

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Speaker 2: point in time until we can try and negotiate better outcome.

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Speaker 1: So how many people are you expecting out at that

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Speaker 1: gathering the arvo.

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Speaker 2: We'd expect a couple of hundred out there, said hey Katie,

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Speaker 2: people are pretty pretty fired up about this, so there

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Speaker 2: should be a good little show.

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Speaker 1: Well, Strabs, I'll be very keen to hear how that

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Speaker 1: goes this afternoon and how these negotiations continue on. I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate you having a chain with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very Chuscarti. As always, thank you,