Disgruntled workers at the Pluto gas project will be offered a deal later this week after Woodside Petroleum, project manager Foster Wheeler Worley and unions came to a compromise over motelling plans.
The parties today met at the offices of Fair Work Australia after deputy president Brendan McCarthy last week flagged he would convene a meeting over the motelling issue.
Earlier this year, half of the 3,200-strong workforce went on strike over plans to allocate a new room, or donga, to workers at the start of each roster, otherwise known as motelling. The plan would be implemented at Woodside's Gap Ridge accommodation village in Karratha.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA, representing 13 contractors, then successfully sought an injunction from the Federal court to get the employees back to work, with the injunction last week extended to February 18.
Since then, Mr McCarthy has convened meetings between the companies and the representatives of three unions; the AMWU, the CEPU and the CFMEU.
Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union state secretary Les McLaughlan, who is also spokesperson for a number of unions representing the Pluto workers, told WA Business News that a compromise had been reached at a meeting today.
He said that workers who were hired before December, or when the motelling plan was unveiled, would not be forced to swap rooms at the start of each shift, however they would have to relocate to the nearby Searipple accommodation village in Karratha.
Woodside has an agreement in place to house workers at Searipple until the $13 billion project was completed, scheduled to be at the end of this year.
Mr McLaughlan said workers will not incur a cost to stay at the village.
He added that Mr McCarthy will head up to Karratha to meet a delegation of workers on Friday where he will present the plan.
"It is really disappointing that it went this long to have the appropriate people to have discussions to sort out the change," Mr McLaughlan said.
