Chevron date set as action continues

Chevron and Offshore Alliance will appear before the Fair Work Commission on September 22 after an application to the industrial umpire for intervention by the LNG producer.

The date of the hearing was revealed by the FWC today, after Chevron made applications late last week and early this week for intractable bargaining declarations at its Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities.

Chevron said yesterday it went down the path based on the belief that there was no reasonable prospect of an agreement between the two parties, which are engaged in a dispute over an enterprise agreement.

The LNG producer claimed the alliance had been requesting terms for its workers that were significantly above the market, and that it had acted and negotiated in good faith.

Those claims have been heavily disputed by Offshore Alliance, which recently averted protected industrial action at Woodside’s LNG platforms courtesy of an 11^th hour enterprise agreement.  

The hearing is scheduled for after Offshore Alliance plans to ramp up industrial action against Chevron, with full strikes planned for two weeks from September 14.

The alliance – representing workers from multiple unions – has undertaken 20 types of protected industrial action at Chevron’s facilities since it went ahead on Friday last week.

These include bans on certain kinds of work and shorter stoppages of work.

The applications by Chevron for FWC intervention in the ongoing dispute were enabled by changes to the Fair Work Act by the Albanese government in June this year.