Vic: Power dispute continues in AIRC

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2001
Vic: Power dispute continues in AIRC

MELBOURNE, Dec 19 AAP - Parties to the electricity industry dispute that has shut down
the Yallourn Energy power plant in eastern Victoria will return to the industrial commission
today.

Private power company, Yallourn Energy, has sought an urgent hearing in the Australian
Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) seeking a ban on work stoppages by 65 maintenance
workers at the company's coal mine.

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU)
and the Australian Workers Union (AWU) have been taking industrial action to pressure
Yallourn Energy to settle a long-running dispute over job cuts.

Industrial action cut off coal to the Yallourn power station and forced the company
to shut down its generators last weekend.

Yallourn Energy wants its workers to agree to forced redundancies, particularly among
maintenance crews on its coal dredgers, whose jobs will be swept away by a planned upgrade
of now outdated mining equipment.

But ETU state secretary Dean Mighell said the issue was about job security in an industry
which had shed thousands of workers over recent years.

The case in the AIRC, which started yesterday was booked to continue until at least Friday.

Industrial action in the same dispute caused blackouts last summer after temperatures
soared and air conditioners sapped Victoria's power supplies.

But the managers of the national grid, NEMMCO, said the effect on electricity supplies
this year was likely to be minimal.

Power demand has been low during the cool summer weather and that was expected to continue
with industry shutting down over Christmas and new year.

AAP ra/ph/de

KEYWORD: YALLOURN DAYLEAD

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