Inpex workers’ wage concerns

Hundreds may lose wages after Carl Delaney’s death

ABOUT 400 Inpex workers are still unsure if they will be paid for Thursday, despite construction on the $50 billion site officially being stopped after co-worker Carl Delaney died the night before.

Workers from MAS, a subsidiary company of AusGroup and a subcontractor on the site, were yesterday told they would still need to apply for annual leave if they wanted to be paid for Thursday.

The wage concerns comes as many Inpex workers held a minute’s silence for Mr Delaney before a rally near the project site over pay and conditions for interstate workers.

ABOUT 400 Inpex workers are still unsure if they will be paid for Thursday, despite construction on the $50 billion site officially being stopped after a co-worker died the night before.

Workers from MAS, a subsidiary company of AusGroup and a subcontractor on the site providing rope access, were yesterday told they would still need to apply for annual leave if they wanted to be paid for Thursday. Inpex workers were called into briefings when they arrived at the project site on Thursday morning, to be told of the death of Carl Delaney while he was on the night shift on Wednesday night.

They were then told they had the option to take the day off, but would have to apply for leave or go unpaid.

However, after confusion over whether the site had officially been shut down, Inpex put out a statement on Friday, saying it had. “Work was suspended (Thursday) out of respect for the worker and his colleagues, and to allow onsite investigations to be conducted,” the statement said.

“No worker suffered a loss of income due to the suspen- sion of work on the construction site yesterday.”

Inpex confirmed this statement again on Friday.

However, MAS workers say they are still being told they may lose a day’s pay, if they don’t apply for leave.

One MAS worker, who asked not to be named, said they had also been required to only work a half-day on Friday, but were stuck at the construction site as no buses arrived to take them back to the village.

“MAS have told us that we won’t get paid until we put in an annual leave form,” a worker said. “Everyone is shaken by this and want some assurances on safety. There are 400 of us affected. On Friday we had to wait around for buses to take us from the site for four hours, even though it was supposed to be a soft workday.”

Electrical Trades Union NT organiser David Hayes said the unions would have further discussion with management to “ensure a consistent approach” across the project.

“Annual and personal leave doesn’t come into the equation when the site is shut for a safety issue,” he said.

MAS was contacted for comment.