Sacked Inpex workers learned their fate through airlines

Airline booking staff — not Inpex bosses — have been the bearers of bad news for workers about to be axed from the $34 billion project before Christmas, the Sunday Territorian understands.

Well-placed sources at the project said some fly-in-fly-out workers — in the absence of news from their employers — found out they would be made redundant by contacting the airlines or agents to check if their names matched bookings.

If their names were marked for flights scheduled before their rostered time off, the workers knew they were about to be tapped on the shoulder.

It comes as JKC Australia, the lead contractor on the project, confirmed 1400 people were expected to be sacked, well beyond early estimates offered by worried unions.

The project is only just past its halfway point, but it is now transitioning from its civil works package to a mechanical and electrical phase.

Many workers have been shocked at the suddenness and timing of the redundancies.

“My Christmas is going to be absolutely — without using the expletive — but it’s going to ruin me,” said one worker, who asked to remain anonymous.

“If I get a tap on the shoulder (tonight) I’m flipping burgers at Macca’s trying to make a living.”

Inpex was cryptic when asked if workers had found out they were to be sacked through the airlines.

“This is a busy time of year, especially for the aviation industry,” the company said in a statement. “For major projects in the oil and gas industry, it is standard practice to pre-book FIFO workers’ flights months in advance.”

If Inpex had booked flights months in advance, it would have also known how many workers would need to go, and when.

A statement from JKC made no mention of timelines, but the worker said the felling began on Friday’s night shift.

“They’re humiliating people. They get a list and go ‘you, on the bus, you on the bus’, in front of all your mates. How big do you reckon you’ll feel? That’s exactly how it happened,” the worker said.

“They had buses sitting there waiting. Us, as subcontractors, got told to stay inside, all the Leightons’ guys got told to go outside, and they started pulling the trigger. One by one. A couple days prior they said they had no idea of numbers. What a load of crap.”

The JKC statement said it had already begun to “facilitate the redeployment” of workers to future construction areas and would offer training across 10 specialty areas “with an emphasis on safety on a large-scale construction site.”

- Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au