Workers have been left rattled after serious safety events at Callide Power Station on Friday injured three workers, the Mining and Energy Union said today.
MEU Queensland Vice President Shane Brunker said workers were concerned at the similarity of events on Friday to the serious 2021 explosion affecting Callide’s C4 Unit.
In particular, the C3 unit was brought offline on Friday after the failure of a battery charger caused a fire in the switch room.
In the Unit 1 boiler the day before, a large clinker (solid formation of ash and coal) fell from the boiler roof impacting two workers. Additionally, a worker cleaning out high build-up of fly ash received burns from a steam pipe.
“Enough is enough,” said Mr Brunker. “We have members still nervous following the C4 incident, the workers on site have lost all trust in CS Energy management.
“After the investigation into the C4 explosion and Brady report, these events should be foreseen and should be preventable.
“We are particularly concerned about the failure of the battery charger as our members have seen firsthand the potential catastrophic results. Ongoing maintenance issues have plagued Callide as well as Kogan Creek Power station, which is also owned and operated by CS Energy.
“New safety processes ‘permit to work’ system was recently rolled out to the CS Energy sites with inadequate training of the personnel who are responsible to administer the process.
“The Queensland shareholding Ministers must act immediately to give the workforce confidence that the power stations are being properly run and maintained.
“Otherwise safety failures and ongoing poor maintenance decisions will continue to plague the Callide and Kogan Creek Power Stations and seriously jeopardise Queensland’s already fragile energy security.”
Contact details:
Monique Blasiak (0430 515 162)