Labor MP and Ausgrid clash over delays restoring power after storms

More than 300 homes and businesses in St George and Sutherland Shire were among 13,000 properties in Sydney and on the Central Coast left without power for about a week after storms on February 8-9.

As Ausgrid battled to restore supplies, a leaked internal document revealed staffing levels had fallen 10 per cent below the minimum legal levels put in place under the terms of its 2015 partial privatisation.

Ausgrid's chief operating officer Trevor Armstrong said the figures did not take into account long-term contractors and, together, the number was above the legal requirement.

However Labor MLC Mark Buttigieg, a former long-time power worker and the party's spokesman in St George and Sutherland Shire, said long-term contractors were not involved in emergency responses.

"What they don't tell you is that these 400 contractors are useless when these events happen because they can't go and restore supply," he said.

"I worked there for 30 years (when it was Energy Australia and before that Sydney Electricity) as a high voltage operator on the front line and I was a union organiser for seven years, so I know how it works.

"It's just not possible to restore supplies quickly when you have lost so many staff over a short period."

An Ausgrid spokesman said claims that contractors did not work in emergency or storm situations were incorrect.

"Various contractors are used for work in these situations such as tree removal, traffic control, and network repairs," he said. "More than 700 contractors worked during the recent storms."

The spokesman said, each quarter Ausgrid was required by legislation to report staffing levels to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).

"According to the latest update published by IPART, Ausgrid's full time equivalent employee number for the quarter ending 31 December 2019 was 3950," the spokesman said.

"This includes direct employees, labour hire and compliant contractors, in line with the definition contained in legislation and referred to by IPART.

"That is 380 FTEs above the staffing level required by legislation."

Mr Buttigieg replied that many of the contractors Ausgrid counted included companies performing capital works projects like building new substations.

"They would be in the hundreds, but they do not contribute to front line restoration because they are not trained to work on Ausgrid's electrical network to restore supply," he said.

"While tree trimmers and traffic control people are necessary in storm events, they are not front line in safely restoring the wires and turning the power back on in a timely manner."

Mr Buttigieg said there was a lack of clarity over exactly what Ausgrid was required to report and what constituted a full time employee.

"The job guarantee legislation was designed to apply to full time staff not transient contracting staff, but Ausgird use a definitional loophole to include transient contracting staff and this can be evidenced by the IPART reporting numbers bouncing around over various quarters," he said.