DATELINE—AUSTRALIA: Queensland Bids! Is This "Charter" A Model?
Just a few weeks ago, a “Queensland Energy Workers’ Charter” was unveiled by a broad set of players in–yes, you guessed it!–the Australian state of Queensland. We will be digging into the details some more in an upcoming newsletter and getting the inside scoop from the players (so, time to subscribe so you don’t miss the key information). For now, let’s make the following observations.
Unions were at the table, as you can see from this list of the parties to the charter:
• Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union
• CleanCo Queensland
• Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (Mining and Energy Division)
• CS Energy
• Electrical Trades Union
• Energy Queensland
• Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen and Minister for Public Works and Procurement
• Powerlink Queensland
• Premier and Minister for the Olympics
• Professionals Australia
• Queensland Hydro
• Stanwell Corporation
• The Services Union.
All the right rhetoric is there for cooperation and making sure a Just Transition is part of the conversation. Here is, perhaps, the key passage:
“The Job Security Guarantee, for affected energy GOC workers, is as follows:
i) Every energy industry worker is guaranteed a job within the Government owned energy sector as it transforms.
ii) Every energy industry worker will be offered agreed financial support and options to support transition to their new
career.
iii) Workers whose existing job no longer exists, and who do not wish to accept the offer of an alternative job in accordance
with that commitment, will have access to other options in accordance with this Charter.
iv) Every energy industry worker will be encouraged to pursue the options and pathways that best suits their individual
circumstances.”
All this is good.
The two questions, which the charter doesn’t yet go into detail, and will no doubt be the subject of haggling and negotiation are:
First, where is the money coming from? There are general statements of money “set aside”. But, no hard figures. Yet.
Second, there is not yet a specific commitment to a specific wage level–and, consistent with the view of this site of a “high bar” Just Transition, certainly not a commitment to higher wages above those being earned today. Because all workers need a raise.
Stay tuned!
Table of Contents
Can’t wait to subscribe to the newsletter?
*We post information pursuant to the U.S. Fair Use Doctrine, and applicable international standards, in order to advance the knowledge base and education of our global audience. We endeavor to include the original link to documents. However, upon requests of original authors of posted documents, where explicit use permission is not granted, we will remove documents if it is determined continued use is not appropriate. We also reserve the full right to not include, or remove, any data inconsistent with our mission.