Blackouts expected as NSW power workers plan to strike
Barclay Crawford
The Sunday Telegraph
October 07, 201212:00AM
MORE than 500,000 homes across NSW risk being left in the dark this month with rolling blackouts expected across the state as power workers walk off the job.
One in six homes could be hit by blackouts during the evening peak following a decision by Fair Work Australia to allow workers to take industrial action at the state's biggest power supplier, Macquarie Generation.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and eight other unions have been cleared to strike at the Liddell and Bayswater power stations in the Hunter Valley in defiance of state government action to strip them of lucrative conditions negotiated with the former NSW Labor government.
The two plants, controlled by Macquarie Generation, produce 40 per cent of the state's energy needs.
While the approved strike is only for 48 hours, the plants would effectively be shut for two weeks because of the time it takes to close them down and then restart them.
The blackout threat has been exacerbated by an explosion at Eraring Energy's Lake Macquarie power plant, which has forced it to shut down until November.
The plant is responsible for about 11 per cent of the state's electricity needs.
The Eraring closure and the proposed strike action come at the worst possible time for NSW, with a hot October predicted to send power demand soaring.
A source said 124 operators at Macquarie Generation earn $250,000 a year once overtime and superannuation are taken into account, with at least one operator on more than $300,000.
Other perks include $2.2 million spent funding a half-hour shower allowance, despite the fact most operators don't raise a sweat on the job, and a lucrative superannuation scheme. But a senior union source said the government was looking to "pick a fight" with them.
The O'Farrell Government believes the power perks are unsustainable and only add to the cost of NSW power bills.
Despite their excessive conditions, workers are also pushing for a five per cent pay rise.
"The work practices in the government's energy business are unsustainable and are only adding to the power costs of consumers," a spokesman for Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said.
"Workers at these plants come under Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Fair Work regime, which has to be conscious when it approves industrial action that these work practices are placing an additional burden on electricity consumers." Peter McPherson, a Unions NSW industrial officer for the state's northern region, said negotiations were continuing and they were "looking to avoid an industrial action".
