Workers stepping onto the Prelude FLNG vessel are set to earn $211,000 at a minimum in the deal signed by Shell to end a devastating union battle.
Workers stepping onto the Prelude FLNG vessel are set to earn $211,000 at a minimum in the deal signed by Shell to end a devastating union battle.
Production at the troubled vessel was restarted this week following an extended industrial dispute that lasted more than 70 days.
Negotiations had commenced in 2020 but broke down.
It has been reported that the labour battle cost Shell about $1.5 billion in lost revenue.
Business News has obtained the enterprise bargaining agreement between Shell and the Offshore Alliance (comprising the Electrical Trades Union and The Australian Workers Union), which was submitted to regulators on Friday and is expected to cover 230 employees.
Workers will earn a base salary, plus a series of additional payments.
Base salaries from the EBA document.
Base salaries start at $105,000 for a production technician and run up to $174,000; while access and service operations technicians will step onboard to an initial pay of $84,000 and cap out at $145,000.
Those salaries will rise at the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Wage Price Index rate over the next four years, with a minimum floor of at least 2.5 per cent, and a ceiling of 5 per cent.
The EBA includes two offshore allowances for workers who are stationed on the facility, totalling $117,000.
That will be in addition to a $10,000 payment for commuting.
It means the minimum pay for an eligible worker stationed on Prelude will be $211,000, ranging up to $308,000.
The union has said the figures showed immediate increases of between $30,000 and $50,000 per worker.
Workers will operate on a 15-week roster, with nine weeks off and six weeks on, in a three-on, four-off, three-on, five-off, system, with special provisions over Christmas.
Redundancy pay will start at 16 weeks, plus three weeks for each year of service, capped at 52 weeks, and will be calculated including base pay and allowances.
Shell said it would not comment on the details of the EBA, but pointed to its recent statement that said cargoes had resumed from the platform and production had restarted.
“This follows the cancellation of Protected Industrial Action after an in-principle enterprise agreement was reached with the Australian Workers’ Union and Electrical Trades Union in relation to the Prelude facility on 23 August,” the statement said.
“The Enterprise Agreement has now been supported by a majority of employees in a formal vote and is expected to come into effect in early October 2022.
“We are focused on moving forward as a business and delivering affordable, reliable energy to our customers through continued safe, stable production in order to meet the critical global demand for energy security.”
AWU state secretary Brad Gandy said workers in the Offshore Alliance should be proud of the deal they had secured.
Mr Gandy said members were particularly concerned about subcontracting provisions and job security.
“As soon as agreement was reached between the Alliance and Shell on the terms of the enterprise agreement, Alliance members were back at work on the Prelude and Shell yesterday made an offtake from the Prelude for the first time since July,” he said.
“The Alliance looks forward to the success of the Prelude and improved engagement with Shell management in the future.
“The negotiations for this enterprise agreement were lengthy and much of this time could have been saved, and potentially the industrial action avoided, if there had been more genuine engagement from Shell management in the negotiations from the outset.”
It has been a rough 12 months on the vessel.
In December, Prelude needed an emergency shutdown after a small fire, with none of the diesel backup generators on the facility working properly.
Production was offline for months following the incident.
Going up
In April, the Offshore Alliance announced a deal covering 369 workers with Inpex, which operates the Ichthys LNG plant in Darwin.
That included a $22,000 increase to the offshore allowance payment, to $78,000.
Base rates of pay started at $125,000 and could be as high as $258,000, which replaced a previous structure paying between $92,000 and $102,000, according to the union.
A new $10,000 annual travel allowance was also included.
A separate Prelude deal was approved in March.
That was between the AWU and ESS and covered chefs, cleaners, and other roles.
Base salaries ranged between $119,157 and $135,044.
