Society

Uniting Church Raises Concern With Woodside Energy

A dispute over Woodside Energy decision to allegedly sack its subcontractors who raised safety issues on the site has caused the Uniting Church of Australia to call for the company to investigate the allegation on Friday.

A dispute over Woodside Energy decision to allegedly sack its subcontractors who raised safety issues on the site has caused the Uniting Church of Australia to call for the company to investigate the allegation on Friday.

The subcontracts were working in the Port Campbell site. It was alleged by the Church that one subcontractor was sacked after refusing to falsify an incident report while another was fired based on the company’s suspicion that he reported a safety incident on the site.

“We are aware of two employees of subcontractors who say they were sacked over safety concerns,” said Dr Mark Zirnsak, the director of Social Justice for the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania.

“One former employee alleges he was asked to falsify an incident report and has signed a statutory declaration to that effect. After he refused to do so he says he was sacked.”

“Another worker alleges he was sacked on the mere suspicion that he reported a safety incident on site. Regrettably, Woodside refused to speak to either of the two former subcontractor employees directly.”

The Church through its investment arm holds a significant parcel of shares in the company. Dr Zirnsak said the Church was disappointed that the company didn’t investigate to see whether the allegation was true.

“We are deeply disappointed that Woodside has refused to conduct a thorough investigation into allegations that employees of subcontractors have been sacked over reporting of safety incidents”, he said.

“We feel Woodside is not living up to its own policies and that it is not ensuring its contractors and subcontractors maintain an environment where safety issues can be freely raised by employees.”

The Otway Gas Plant construction site is supervised by Technip Oceania, a company contracted by Woodside. The Synod’s Justice and International Mission Unit have undertaken many attempts at dialogue with Woodside over the last seven months. A promised formal response from Woodside, due by January 2007, never materialised.

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