PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The global oil market is bracing for the start of industrial action at Australian major Woodside’s North West Shelf platforms, should negotiations fail.

Offshore Alliance members at Woodside will take industrial action should they be disappointed by the outcome of a meeting between their representatives and the company on August 23, the Offshore Alliance said in a statement.

The industrial action decision was taken at a meeting of Offshore Alliance members over the weekend, where it was unanimously agreed to instruct the Alliance to serve Woodside with a notice of proposed protected industrial action after the next bargaining meeting between the union and Woodside should the meeting not produce the outcomes sought by members.

Strike action could occur as early as September 2.

Woodside has spent the last nine months in the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Court of Australia opposing Offshore Alliance members' right to bargain for an enterprise agreement where they failed on 13 occasions, the union alliance previously said.

Offshore Alliance spokesperson, Australian Workers’ Union WA secretary Brad Gandy said it was time for Woodside to accept that its workers wanted an industry standard enterprise agreement.

“Woodside tried every tactic it could think of to avoid bargaining with its workers as a collective, but in the end the company failed to maintain the status quo it liked – one where what the company says goes,” said Gandy.

“The Alliance first approached Woodside to bargain for an agreement to apply to the North West Shelf platforms in May 2022. Woodside has dragged this out and brought us all along with them. Woodside must now realise that we are not going away.

“Offshore Alliance members don’t take industrial action lightly, but Woodside is really leaving them with little choice here,” said Gandy.

Woodside on Monday told Mining Weekly Online that the company “continues to engage actively and constructively in the bargaining process. Positive progress is being made and the parties have reached an in-principle agreement on a number of issues that are key to the workforce”.