CONTRACTING CONTRACTING CONTRACTING

Agreement negotiations

The ETU Supply Contractors Agreement is due for expiry on the 31st of March 2024 The first steps of the negotiations, gathering the list of claims from the members, commenced in mid-February and will take place throughout March and April. These meetings with members will be taking place across the state in depots and on the worksites In June at the supply contractors delegates conference, a final log of claims will be put together by your delegates to be endorsed in workplaces. To date, claims being put forward are demonstrating the cost-of-living pressures are starting to bite hard on working people and I’m confident to say the final log of claims will be representative of this

Industry demand

As the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan starts to get some legs, growth in this sector is underway The demand for licensed and skilled workers is becoming quite significant. If you have supply industry experience and want to get back into it, then now is the time But with this demand, we are also seeing plenty of contractors that have generally not had an interest in this industry suddenly want to be the next big thing. Several contractors with dollars signs in their eyes have made attempts to get their foot in the door, and to date, haven’t looked like impressing any of their potential future clients. Some have not had the best record in how they treat workers, and some look like they haven’t had the best safety record – two things that, in my view, are great reasons to not have them here participating in the power industry.

Future training needs Brenton

The ETU, as always, is doing everything it can to ensure that future training opportunities exist for contractors in the supply industry Transmission is one area where there is going to be massive opportunity for growth and training. There are incredible amounts of transmission lines to be constructed over the coming years Unfortunately, the tradespeople to do this are thin on the ground The ETU is in the early stages of talks with industry participants to ensure the facilities and ability to train these future tradespeople are available While it is widely acknowledged there could be a need to bring some overseas workers in to meet short term demand The priority for the ETU will always be securing training opportunities for local workers to enter the industry or others in other areas to upskill or reskill to meet the expected demand.