Unions at Australia's last remaining office paper manufacturer expect the company to soon decide whether to permanently cease production.
Between December and January, Opal Australian Paper stood down 120 workers from its white paper production line at its Maryvale mill in the Latrobe Valley, east of Melbourne.
The production line primarily makes printing and inkjet paper.
It's understood the mill's Japanese-owned parent company Nippon Paper Group will decide on Wednesday whether to halt its operations in white paper production.
A lack of timber supply is being blamed for the decision, after the company was unable to secure an alternative hardwood supply when a court order late last year halted VicForests' operations across the state.
In November 2022, Victoria's supreme court handed down judgements against the state-owned VicForests when it found the logging agency had failed to protect endangered gliders in Gippsland and Central Victoria.
The mill also produces brown paper, in the form of kraft liner board for containers. At this point, brown paper production is not affected.
Maryvale mill Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union sub-branch president Bill Scott said he believed Opal Australian paper had made their recommendations but the Nippon board were still to decide.
He said the unions hoped the decision was made and communicated to staff sooner rather than later.
At least 200 workers would be made redundant if the white paper side of the business closed.
"This process has been dragged out for too long," Mr Scott said.
"What was a noisy and busy machine for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past 20-odd years is now in silence," he said.
Maintenance jobs stripped back
Electrical Trade Union Gippsland organiser Peter Mooney said the company was looking at making more electrical and maintenance staff redundant than was necessary.
Mr Mooney said Opal Australian Paper had flagged redundancies for 50 electrical and mechanical maintenance staff despite only 12 working on the white paper side of the business.
"The cuts that they're proposing in the electrical trades will see us at a point where are there certain works that we are unable to do and if we were to do it, we could actually put ourselves in an unsafe position," he said.
He said the union may look to the Fair Work Commission to try to mitigate redundancies so that the plant could continue to operate correctly and safely.
"There's 140 questions we have put to the company, and they haven't responded to any of those questions at this stage," Mr Mooney said.
He said the impact of losing this side of the business would be felt widely in the Latrobe Valley.
"I'm thinking that we're going to lose in wages and salaries from that plant closing … about $30 million each year … which then has a flow-on effect to businesses locally."
Opal considering options
An Opal Australia spokeswoman said workers that had been stood down would continue to receive state-government support payments until mid-February.
A Victorian government spokesperson confirmed that the state was working with Opal to help the mill's long-term operations.
"We acknowledge this is a challenging time," they said.
"We have made sure stood-down workers by Opal receive full pay and entitlements, and the dedicated Opal Worker Support Service has been activated to deliver tailored and immediate support services."
