Radical Agreement Ensures Jobs For 520
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday December 2, 1994
The construction of a concrete gravity platform for Esso's 33- storey-tall oil rig - employing 520 workers, including 160 formerly long-term unemployed -has helped revive the fortunes of Wollongong, says Mr Paul Matters, secretary of the South Coast Labor Council.
But to ensure the $750 million project was not lost to a lower-waged Asian country, the Labor Council had to negotiate a radical industrial agreement. It included the provision that workers could not walk off the site when it rained, as usually happened. It also provided for them to work across classifications.
In return, Esso provided high wages, jobs and training for the long-term unemployed, agreed to hire locally, and abided by other parts of the award covering conditions and holidays.
Behind the negotiations was the threat that Esso could build its rig in a low-wage Asian country, and float it across the ocean to Bass Strait.
Unwilling to match Asian wage levels, Mr Matters promised high productivity, a quality labour force and an agreement based on, but radically different from, the award.
He said the construction award applied to an industry which was usually protected from competition, but the Esso project was inherently internationally competitive.
© 1994 Sydney Morning Herald