STAFF WRITERS
OPAL is currently engaged in Enterprise Agreement discussions with more than 300 Maryvale Mill production team members and the CFMEU.
The current production agreement expired at the end of December 2024.
Opal sent a release on Thursday stating: “We continue to negotiate in good faith with the CFMEU and our production team members”.
“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.
“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.”
Not long after, the CFMEU sent out a release sharing that the action was in response to seven workers taking a six-hour work stoppage as part of a protected industrial action – the first by production workers in over two decades. They also stated that the industrial parties have been bargaining since October.
“Opal have a history of poor management of the mill; lack of foresight and planning to ensure the long term success of the business,” the CFMEU said in a statement.
“This lack of planning sees the mill overtime bill top out at $5.4 million per annum by their own admission.”
Pulp and Paper District Secretary, Denise Campbell Burns believed not enough was being done to help workers.
“Opal claim to want a ‘fair outcome’ but this seems to mean workers must start by giving up their current conditions,” she said.
“Opal want 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.”
Throughout Opal’s release, the team has expressed that they have given the commitment to good faith bargaining and the ultimate success of the Maryvale Mill, they remain confident that the Enterprise Agreement negotiations will be successfully resolved so that people can return to work.
It said: “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 has lost almost half of its production volumes and suffered significant and continued financial impacts and the new Enterprise Agreement obviously needs to reflect these significant changes.
“The terms and conditions that were appropriate many years ago in previous Enterprise Agreements are not relevant to the mill’s operations today, nor do they reflect the way Australian paper mills operate in 2025.
“As a result of these challenges and changes to our operating conditions, Opal is seeking to make fair and reasonable changes to its operations and to embody these in a simpler, fair and competitive Enterprise Agreement.
“Our 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.
“Opal is motivated to ensure the mill continues for generations to come, but to do so we must challenge ourselves, our valued team members and our stakeholders to adapt to the reality of the market in which we now compete.”
