Offshore Alliance’s social media activity examined after complaints over trolling of companies, staff

The online activity of a powerful union alliance for offshore gas workers was referred to WA’s workplace safety regulator after complaints about the relentless trolling of individuals and companies, including a campaign comparing one firm to the terrorist group ISIS. The Australian Resources & Energy Employer Association (ARREA) made a formal complaint to WorkSafe WA about the Offshore Alliance’s Facebook page, alleging its posts were being used to “humiliate, intimidate … or bully” industry employees. An industry insider said the targeted abuse had caused veteran staff to take extended periods of stress leave. The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) formed the Offshore Alliance in 2018 to campaign for better wages and conditions in the offshore gas sector. The alliance uses it Facebook page — which is public and has 14,000 followers — to attack gas companies and employees using graphic memes and cartoons. A recent target has been engineering services firm UGL’s IAS group for its alleged use of so-called “baseline agreements”. In several posts, the firm is depicted as “industrial terrorists” with its name deliberately misspelt IAS (IS) to draw comparisons with the Islamic terrorist group ISIS. One post features a cartoon of several balaclava-wearing people watching a slide-show presentation of a “negotiation strategy”, which involves a beheading. The page includes several posts with the names and faces of employees photo-shopped onto the memes. The West can reveal AREEA submitted a formal complaint to then-acting WA WorkSafe commissioner Sally North about the Facebook page on May 10 this year. In the complaint, obtained by The West, the employer group said the alliance’s social media posts posed an “unacceptable risk” to the health and safety of its members’ employees. “The posts encourage a hostile working environment for these personnel and attempt to discourage other supervisory personnel from performing their duties, or exercising them in a particular way, for fear of being targeted in the same way,” the complaint stated. AREEA asked WorkSafe to review the posts with a view to forcing the alliance to not publish material or remove posts. In a statement to The West, a WorkSafe spokesman confirmed the regulator received a “concern” about the posts and had “addressed the matter in accordance with its compliance and enforcement policy”. However, it refused to comment on how the matter was addressed because complaints are treated on a confidential basis. The West understands WorkSafe officials advised AREEA in mid-October that it had contacted the Offshore Alliance about the complaint, although the nature of the correspondence is unknown. The Offshore Alliance has deleted some posts following direct complaints, only to keep publishing similar material. With the Offshore Alliance continuing to post regularly on its Facebook page, AREEA does not believe its concerns have been resolved and is urging WorkSafe to use every tool available to rein in the behaviour. The employer group also lodged a complaint with the federal eSafety Commissioner but was told the matter was outside its jurisdiction. AREEA chief executive Steve Knott said the alliance’s “reprehensible trolling” of staff who were just doing their job would not be tolerated in any Australian workplace. “The posts not only foment hostile working conditions for these personnel but attempt to discourage other supervisors and managers from carrying out their legitimate duties for fear of being publicly harassed in the same way,” he said. “This behaviour refuses to let up even when the Offshore Alliance is directly requested to stop. “Removing or amending the page after the harm has already occurred and then continuing to operate in the same manner shows that page ‘moderators’ do not take seriously their health and safety obligations. “Health and safety regulators are obliged to thoroughly investigate this matter and take whatever steps are necessary to protect employees from the unions’ targeted and abhorrent propaganda.” Representatives from the Offshore Alliance declined to comment when contacted by The West. But union sources, who weren’t authorised to speak publicly, brushed off the complaints as a “bit of whinge” about “satire”. One source said Facebook was a powerful platform to publicly expose the conduct of the big gas companies to the union’s wider membership. An industry source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said employees targeted by the alliance were left hurt and demoralised by the relentless attacks. “We try not to respond to it because it fuels it, but the individuals are left quite attacked,” the source told The West. “On two occasions, I’ve had senior people feel terribly aggrieved and hurt, and in one case a senior manager who has been in the industry for more than 30 years ended up taking time off to see if they wanted to keep going. “These are not people who are easily shaken, they deal with unions every day, they deal with union officials every day.” The source said the alliance’s claims about companies, such as comparisons with terrorists, damaged their reputation and made it harder to recruit in a tight-labour market.