Fair Work Commission is not convinced that the stoppages will cause significant economic disruption
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has dismissed Inpex's attempt to halt industrial action at its onshore and offshore facilities in Darwin, rejecting the Australian energy giant's claim that it would damage the economy.
In his decision, FWC deputy president Michael Easton disagreed that production stoppages would be a "significant disruption" to the economy, the ABC News reported.
Easton based the ruling on the assumption that the value of Inpex's gas production was in the vicinity of $15 million to $22 million per day, citing the Australian giant's decision not to disclose in court its value.
The FWC deputy president agreed that the strikes and worker bans would "threaten to cause a full production stoppage" for at least a week from Tuesday, ABC reported.
But he disagreed that a full stoppage of production would significantly damage the Australian or Northern Territory economy.
"Planned and unplanned production stoppages occur relatively frequently, and it was not said by any of Inpex's witnesses that lost production time cannot ever be made up," he said as quoted by ABC News.
"It may well be that production and loading of product to ships is delayed during the shutdown, which the economists would regard as a disruption to the economy, but I do not regard this to be a significant disruption."
Inpex's move comes after unions threatened eight-hour strikes...
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