When Energy Australia announced the closure of its ageing Yallourn coal-fired power station five years ago, the company set aside $10 million to prepare the site’s 450 workers for life after coal.
But with the closure date less than two years away, one employee told the Monitor they haven’t seen a lick of that money.
“It's alright to tell everyone you’ve got this money, but there's really no leadership from the organisation in terms of providing a link with training providers [for workers] to then utilise those funds.”
The employee, who asked to stay anonymous because their job could be made redundant in 2028, said some Yallourn workers had been able to negotiate retraining into their contracts – but many employees were still waiting for paid time off and training courses to prepare for the plant’s imminent closure.
What they said: Mining and Energy Union Victoria District President, Andy Smith, told the Monitor: “The clock’s ticking - it's less than two years away now. The workers on site that I speak to are saying there’s a lot of uncertainty about what life looks like for them after the closure.
“There are workers that will be able to retire with a redundancy package, but there are more workers that due to their age and their financial position will have to keep working.”
What is Energy Australia doing?
The company says it has approved 318 training courses and provided 777 one-on-one career coaching sessions to Yallourn workers since 2022 with its $10 million worker support package.
The funds worked out to be $22,222 for each of the plant's 450 workers.
Has retraining been successful in Latrobe?
In 2017, a Worker Transition Service was set up to retrain some 750 employees at Hazelwood after Engie abruptly announced the plant's closure.
This scheme was expanded to include workers from the Carter Holt Harvey timber mill, which closed down after the coal mine.
Two years later, in 2019, statistics from the Victorian Government showed that of the 850 workers who took part in the scheme, only 306 (36 percent) were in full-time work.
Why is Yallourn closing?
With an increasing number of unplanned outages at the station due to the ageing facility, Energy Australia announced in 2021 that it would cease operating its coal-fired power plant at Yallourn in mid-2028.
The current Yallourn station (known as Yallourn W) is 52 years old. The average lifespan of a coal-fired plant in Australia is 29 years.
This has given the company and government bodies a seven-year period to prepare the roughly 450 workers for new jobs and careers.
A report from the federal government’s Net Zero Economy Authority (NZEA) says Energy Australia will be able to “at best” provide future employment to approximately 24 percent of its Yallourn workforce at the existing site, and those roles may also be short contracts.
That would leave roughly 340 Latrobe Valley workers without jobs in 2028 and Latrobe City Council is trying to prepare for the impact it’ll have on the community.
The shift to manufacturing
Latrobe City Mayor Sharon Gibson told the Monitor the shire has spent 10 years putting half of any surplus it has made towards its new Gippsland Logistics and Manufacturing Precinct (GLaMP) in Morwell.
“We've been building up this fund so we can promote projects that create jobs. We've set it up for new industries and businesses to set up shop there,” Gibson said.
The council set aside $30.4 million in its latest budget for the development of the 40 hectares of land at the Tramway Road and Kirwin Road intersection in Morwell.
Gibson said she’s hopeful the new manufacturing precinct will help provide jobs to workers leaving Yallourn.
“Having people retrain is all well and good, but you've got to have a job for them to retrain for.”
The council has also been advocating to the federal government for the shire to be turned into a manufacturing hub for Gippsland’s offshore wind industry.
What is the federal government doing about it?
In 2024, the federal government set up the Net Zero Economy Authority (NZEA) to manage Australia’s shift to renewable energy.
Part of the organisation's role is to help coal workers move into new industries by accessing training and reskilling opportunities.
In June, the CEO of NZEA David Shankey, sent a report to the Fair Work Commission to request that it establish an Energy Industry Jobs Plan (EIJP) for the Yallourn Power Station closure.
The plan, if approved by the commission, would put obligations on Energy Australia to prepare Yallourn employees for future employment. This could include training, career planning, financial advice, paid time off or flexible working arrangements.
But with Yallourn’s closure less than two years away, the anonymous Energy Australia employee said they’re frustrated they haven’t been given the chance to retrain already.
The Monitor contacted Energy Australia for an interview on Wednesday last week but the company was unable to schedule an interview prior to publication.
Cover image credit: Stephen Edmonds picture of Yallourn W in 2012.