Voting commences today in the ballot on the Fair Work Commission’s recommended Enterprise Agreement for AGL Loy Yang employees.

AGL Loy Yang General Manager, Steve Rieniets, said voting in the secret ballot, to be conducted on-site by an independent provider, opens at midday today and closes at 4.00pm on Wednesday 21 September.

“AGL Loy Yang accepts the Commission’s independent recommendation and is encouraging a ‘yes’ vote because while it doesn’t provide all the workplace flexibility we’d originally sought, it will bring benefits, certainty and stability for our employees, our company, our customers and the community,” Mr Rieniets said.

“We have conducted a number of employee briefings to ensure our people have all the relevant information they need to make an informed decision. These have been important in addressing a number of false claims about job cuts, relocations and forced redundancies.

“In fact, the Commission’s recommendation includes a pay increase of five percent for each year of the four-year Agreement, no forced redundancies, no change to superannuation entitlements and no change to long service leave provisions. 

“Only a ‘yes’ vote can bring certainty to AGL Loy Yang’s future at a time of significant change in our industry. A ‘no’ vote would mean negotiations would have to go back to the drawing board and AGL would have no choice but continue to pursue its application to have the current Enterprise Agreement terminated.

“It would also raise the spectre of industrial action by union members,” he said.

The main union involved in the EBA negotiations, the CFMEU, currently is seeking approval for protected industrial action, while AGL Loy Yang has applied for termination of the current EBA.

About AGL
AGL is one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies. It is taking action to responsibly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while providing secure and affordable energy to its customers. Drawing on over 175 years of experience, AGL serves its customers throughout eastern Australia with meeting their energy requirements, including gas, electricity, solar PV and related products and services. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, solar, landfill gas and biomass.