Three days of conciliation sessions between union group the Offshore alliance (OA) and Chevron Australia have failed to lead to an agreement, ahead of a hearing before Australia's workplace arbiter on 22 September.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) ordered the three days of talks to take place between the sides in Perth at a directions hearing on 12 September, ahead of the full bench of the FWC ruling on Chevron's application to have enterprise agreement negotiations ruled to be intractable.
"The negotiations before the commissioner were useful and resulted in some concessions on both sides. However, the Offshore Alliance and its members want to secure an enterprise agreement that locks in industry standard terms and conditions and the offer made by Chevron at the conclusion of the negotiations failed to meet that standard," OA spokesman Brad Gandy said on 20 September after the talks ended.
"Offshore Alliance members remain open to compromise, but Chevron must table an offer that doesn't have Chevron providing lesser terms and conditions of employment to its employees when compared to other employers in the sector."
The FWC will now hear Chevron's intractable bargaining application, relating to the long-running dispute over an enterprise agreement for workers at the 8.9mn t/yr Wheatstone LNG, 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG and Wheatstone gas platform, in Sydney on 22 September.
If the FWC accepts Chevron's arguments it can then either order final talks or immediately proceed to rule on the case, ending the negotiations between Chevron and the union, which began three years ago in the case of Wheatstone gas platform staff.
Alternatively the FWC may order the parties to go back to the negotiating table.
The OA has struck deals with Japanese upstream firm Inpex, Shell and Australian independent Woodside in recent years, following efforts to organise staff at remote facilities in gas-rich northern and western Australia.
Chevron has continued to load vessels despite the turmoil, shipping about 700,000t of LNG in seven cargoes from its two WA plants since 14 September when strike periods escalated, according to preliminary data from oil analytics firm Vortexa.
This came despite three days of repairs at Wheatstone LNG following a fault that reduced output by about 20pc.
