Essential Energy has been notified by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) that members of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), and Professionals Australia have voted in favour of commencing protected industrial action.

Overall, only 52 per cent of all eligible employees turned out to vote for or against taking protected industrial action. Of these, only 43 per cent of United Services Union (USU) members voted, providing insufficient support for these members to take any form of protected action as part of this ballot, according to Essential Energy’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Gary Humphreys.

"The proposed action includes work stoppages of up to 72 hours as well as a range of other actions including periodic bans on overtime, the use of mobile phones and computers, training and administration," Mr Humphreys said.

"Essential Energy’s priorities are the safety of our customers, employees and members of the public, as well as the reliability of the network. Potential impacts from protected industrial action will be continuously monitored and appropriate responses implemented immediately if the action threatens to compromise safety or has an adverse impact on customers."

This industrial action follows almost 12 months of bargaining with the combined unions to secure a new Essential Energy Enterprise Agreement.  Essential Energy continues to bargain with all parties.

Essential Energy tabled a revised draft Agreement on 4 February 2016 that proposed maintenance of long-standing entitlements for long service leave and other terms and conditions as well as maintaining superannuation entitlements well above the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC).

At the same time, this draft Agreement introduces involuntary redundancy as the business navigates a period of significant reform to drive efficiency and remove unnecessary costs to customers, Mr Humphreys said.

"While the unions appear unwilling to compromise, this revised draft Agreement has been made available to all union officials and employees and represents a significant compromise by Essential Energy. It was designed to balance Essential Energy’s urgent need for greater flexibility and efficiency with the interests of employees.

"However, the unions rejected this offer and have yet to provide a counter offer, other than to stand by their initial claims of zero trade-offs, job security for all employees, and annual wage increases. Instead, the unions applied for a protected action ballot order."

The ETU and Professionals Australia are required to provide notice in writing regarding the nature of the action to be taken and the day it will start, at least seven working days before any industrial action commences.

Essential Energy has advised the combined unions of their obligations under Work Health and Safety legislation during periods of protected industrial action.

"Essential Energy faces many significant challenges as it continues to be constrained by its existing Enterprise Agreement which prevents it from becoming more efficient and reducing unnecessary costs. Continuing with an inefficient and inflexible Enterprise Agreement will impose unnecessary costs on families and business in regional NSW," Mr Humphreys said.

The United Services Union has since applied to the Fair Work Commission for a fresh protected industrial action ballot at Essential Energy after workers reported that irregularities and delays involving regional postal services had prevented many eligible voters from taking part.

USU general secretary Graeme Kelly said the decision followed consultation with workplace delegates yesterday, where it was revealed that some workers who were eligible to vote hadn’t received a ballot paper from the Australian Electoral Commission.

“While those who voted in the original ballot were overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action at Essential Energy, the final count narrowly failed to gain the 50 per cent of voters taking part to be successful,” Mr Kelly said.

“In fact, the final result was just 28 votes short of the required level to have been successful.

“Given the narrow margin by which it fell short and reports that there were a number of irregularities with the ballot process, including eligible voters not even receiving ballot papers, the union believes the appropriate course of action is to seek a new vote that addresses these issues.”