Staff at Australia's 9.3mn t/yr Ichthys LNG terminal operated by Japanese firm Inpex have voted to begin protected industrial action (PIA) as early as next week, the Offshore Alliance (OA) union said today, citing unresolved pay dispute issues.
Strike action was authorised by a vote of unionised staff last month but the OA offered to suspend strikes until the end of enterprise bargaining meetings facilitated by Australia's Fair Work Commission (FWC), the industrial dispute arbiter.
But members last night voted unanimously to serve notice of strikes after the next FWC-brokered meeting on 15 May to force resolution of the issues, the OA said on 12 May, citing outstanding concerns despite recent talks, which it said made more progress in one day than the past six months.
The upcoming meeting on 15 May will be the sixth since 24 April when the OA members at Ichthys first endorsed strikes at the project.
It has become clear to the union that PIA was now needed to get certain issues sorted, the OA said, without clarifying the nature of the impasse between the sides.
Potential supply disruptions would likely be limited at first, with the largely manageable PIA taking the form of hour-long pauses and refusal of certain shift handovers, as well as other disruptive actions. The minimum notice period for commencing PIA is three working days, according to the FWC.
But escalations have affected output in the past, such as during a strike at Shell's 3.6mn t/yr Prelude floating LNG offshore Western Australia in June-September 2022, and PIA at Chevron's 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG in September-October 2023 where some flaring of gas occurred.
