Western Power to cut 215 jobs, blames uptake of rooftop solar

WA electricity network Western Power has announced plans to cut more than 200 jobs, in an effort to adjust to the “shift in economic and industry conditions” the company says is being driven, in part, by the uptake of rooftop solar in the state.

In a media statement released on Monday, the state government-owned utility said that changing customer needs and falling demand had driven a new works program, which meant that fewer employees were needed across the business.

To this end, it said it had begun consulting with employees and unions to offer “voluntary separation” for an estimated 215 roles that were no longer needed, with the first round of job cuts due to start in May.

According to reports, the cuts would be split evenly would be split almost evenly between administrative and field roles, including network planning staff and project management staff.

“We have seen significant improvements in our business in recent years,” said Western Power’s acting CEO Guy Chalkley. “But at the same time, WA has experienced a shift in economic and industry conditions, along with lower household energy use from solar power and more energy efficient appliances.”

But unions say the job cuts are more to do with the state government’s plans to privatise the utility.

“Today’s announcement shows that the Barnett Government is trying to make Western Power look as profitable as possible, to attract potential purchasers,” said Les McLaughlan, branch secretary of the WA Electrical Trades Union.

“It is now clear that we don’t have to wait until Western Power is privatised to see job losses and associated cuts to maintenance. Just the intent to privatise, alone, is seeing the negative impacts of privatisation visited on the community.”