The Electrical Trades Union’s (ETU) campaign of protected industrial action (PIA) is hurting electrical contractors and delaying projects that are critical to keeping people in work and NSW’s recovery from the pandemic, NECA says.

ETU members working for Ausgrid are currently taking PIA as they seek to put pressure on the network while negotiations are underway for a new enterprise agreement.

Electrical contractors rely on Ausgrid to turn electricity off when they need to do major work that connects or disconnects electrical infrastructure to the network. These ‘outages’ are being delayed or cancelled at short notice due to PIA, causing major disruption to electrical work on projects and potentially costing contractors thousands of dollars.

There have been at least ten outages cancelled and many more delayed since the ETU ramped up its campaign of PIA. Each cancelled outage can cost an electrical contractor between $5,000 and $30,000.  The knock-on effect of delaying whole construction or infrastructure projects can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Electrical work is a key component of any infrastructure or construction project – and delays to it being done ultimately mean delays to project completion.

“Common sense needs to prevail here,” NECA chief executive Oliver Judd says.

“This action is causing collateral damage for family-owned electrical business, whose operations are thrown into chaos when industrial action occurs. The ETU and Ausgrid need to put measures in place that don’t pass the impacts of industrial relations onto innocent third parties.

“Agreements should be made around the negotiating table not by bringing electrical work in NSW to a halt.”