Maroc - TIMBERBIZ.COM.AU - A La Une - 20/Jan 00:40

Opal locks out 300 employees during Enterprise Agreement discussions

Opal took the unprecedented step of locking out more than 300 CFMEU Manufacturing Division production members indefinitely from their Maryvale mill in the Latrobe Valley.  This action was in response to seven workers taking a 6-hour work stoppage as part of a protected industrial action – the first by production workers in more than two decades.  Source: Timberbiz Opal is currently engaged in Enterprise Agreement discussions with its Maryvale Mill production team members and the CFMEU. The current production agreement expired at the end of December 2024. Opal’s total lockout is completely disproportionate to the action taken by the employees, it displays a total disregard for the employees, their families and communities according to the CFMEU. In a statement Opal said it continued to negotiate in good faith with the CFMEU and its production team members. Industrial parties have been in bargaining since October 2024 and the CFMEU said Opal was aiming to strip ‘the hard-won wages and conditions of their employees’. “We are focused on reaching an Enterprise Agreement with our team members and the union that is fair and allows us to supply our customers with quality paper in an extremely competitive and evolving market,” Opal said in a statement. “Unfortunately, given the protected industrial action taken and upcoming notified action by the CFMEU, which includes planned rolling shutdowns of the Mill’s infrastructure, we cannot operate our paper production facilities. “We are disappointed to announce that we have been forced to make the decision under the Fair Work Act to undertake a legal lockout of our production team members covered by the CFMEU Agreement. “Given our commitment to good faith bargaining and the ultimate success of our Maryvale Mill, we remain confident that the Enterprise Agreement negotiations will be successfully resolved so that our team members can return to work. “As has been well documented, the Maryvale Mill’s operations have been severely impacted by the loss of wood supply from VicForests and the subsequent end to white paper manufacturing.” As a result, the site lost almost half of its production volumes and suffered significant and continued financial impacts and Opal says the new Enterprise Agreement needs to reflect these significant changes. Opal said that the terms and conditions that were appropriate many years ago in previous Enterprise Agreements were not relevant to the Mill’s operations today, nor did they reflect the way Australian paper mills operate in 2025. As a result of these challenges and changes to its operating conditions, Opal is seeking to make changes to its operations and embody these in a ‘simpler, fair and competitive Enterprise Agreement’. The CFMEU says that Opal wants a ‘fair outcome’ but this seems to mean workers must start by giving up their current conditions and Opal wants to increase employees ordinary working hours; reclassify their roles again; treat them like casual employees and remove checks and balances around rostering; crewing numbers and career progression. In 2016 production employees accepted a 5% pay cut and a resetting of wages to secure the future of the mill. This outcome was achieved with no industrial action. Management did not take a reduction in wages. The Maryvale Mill has been in operation since 1937. It is part of the fabric of the Latrobe Valley, employing generations of locals and driving economic activity for local industries and thousands of Victorians.