With destructive winds and intense rain closing in on Tasmania late last month, TasNetworks' head of operations Jason King overheard a conversation in a control room.
He told the Fair Work Commission (FWC) that it involved leaders from the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU).
It included comments that control room operators would not be restoring power to life-support customers.
When the storms arrived, they caused widespread property damage and power outages affecting 40,000 electricity customers at their peak.
The storms that started in late August brought down powerlines. (Facebook: Branxholm Fire Brigade)
Among them were people reliant on life support, some of whom were without power for 60 hours and using backup power sources, when Mr King issued a direction to control room operators to restore their power.
The direction was refused, the FWC heard.
It took 30 minutes of discussion and deliberation before it was agreed that their power should be restored. The CEPU told Fair Work that "suitable undertakings" had been given to protect life-support customers.
The incident was one of four deemed by the FWC to have threatened community safety earlier this month, as part of TasNetworks' attempt to end CEPU industrial action during the storm response period.
The full reasons have been released — including safety fears over fallen transmission lines near New Norfolk in Tasmania's south, and concerns that wind farm blades could be left to spin uncontrollably.
Wild weather lashed Tasmania for several days. (Supplied: Mavis Wilkins)
Industrial dispute paused for storms, but only temporarily
In the days before the storms, TasNetworks and the CEPU effectively reached a truce in their increasingly bitter pay and conditions dispute.
The union agreed to suspend industrial action for "emergency work", defined as works that needed to be carried out immediately to avoid serious and imminent risk of injury or death.
On August 25, in the face of dire weather forecasts, TasNetworks chief executive Sean McGoldrick designated the storms a "declared incident", making all staff available within 12 hours of the storm's arrival.
But, at the height of the storm event, different interpretations emerged of what the designation meant.
Sean McGoldrick designated the storms a "declared incident". (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
Town's safety 'threatened' by fallen transmission line
It was just after midnight on Friday, August 30, when TasNetworks was made aware of fallen transmission lines at New Norfolk, which carry power into Hobart.
Mr King told the FWC that a crew would usually be directed straight to the site, because of the potential to "induce electrical current" and cause risk to anybody nearby.
But 10 hours later, when a direction was issued to the control room, it was refused unless another outage occurred.
"This meant that the whole township of New Norfolk was at risk of being without power, being more than 5,000 customers, including nursing homes, medical facilities and Hobart's main water supply," Mr King told the FWC.
The Derwent Valley in Tasmania's south was one of the areas worst affected by recent wild weather. (ABC News: Owain Stia-James)
The direction was reissued at 5:15pm because of increasing flood risk in the area, and accepted by the control room.
Fair Work Commissioner Nicholas Wilson found this incident had threatened community safety.
"The longer the outage lasted, the more the effects of the protected industrial action threatened the safety of the town," he wrote in his decision.
Mine's attempt for power restoration refused
The storm also caused a magnetite iron ore mine owned by Grange Resources at Savage River, in the state's north-west, to lose power at 3:18am.
The FWC heard that the control room acknowledged the outage, but refused to perform switching to reconnect power because of the industrial action.
At 11am, Grange Resources told TasNetworks that it did not have enough power to pump water out of its "increasingly full" dams. Another direction was issued to TasNetworks' control room, and refused again.
At the time, the CEPU disputed whether there was a safety risk at the mine and, the FWC was told, requested information in writing from Grange about the issue.
It wasn't until 11:49am that the control room agreed to restore power.
Mr Wilson wrote that the control room operators should have relied on the information from Grange.
"What had been reported to TasNetworks was more than a matter of inconvenience and was not a generalised prediction; instead it was a report from a duty-holder in a dangerous industry," he wrote.
Wind turbine blades could have spun uncontrollably
The storms continued over multiple nights.
At 3:46am on August 31, the transmission lines that feed power into the Woolnorth wind farm in the state's north-west went out.
Three hours later, the transmission lines for the Musselroe wind farm in the north-east also went down.
Wind turbines need internal electrical regulation. (ABC News: Craig Heerey)
And at 10.58am, Mr King told the FWC that the owner of the wind farms raised safety and damage concerns with TasNetworks.
"This is because, if such wind turbines are left to spin with the natural wind without internal electrical regulation, they would effectively increase in speed and momentum … in an unregulated way," he said.
"Which had the potential for them to break off and fall (known as a 'runaway' event), potentially caused life-threatening harm to any person nearby."
The turbines could not be manually shut down, the FWC heard.
The Woolnorth wind farm lost power early on August 31, posing safety risks. (Rick Eaves)
A direction was issued to the control room to restore power, which was refused, and then another was issued at 4:05pm, again refused.
A third direction, at 5:15pm, was accepted.
The CEPU told the FWC there was "some delay", but power was restored when union leaders reminded control room staff to comply with undertakings to TasNetworks.
Mr Wilson found the delay had threatened community safety.
Union says control room staff can show own judgement
At the time of the FWC hearing on September 3, TasNetworks had three further outstanding directions for power to be restored: for a Forico woodchip mill in Launceston, the Grange mine on a separate matter, and a TimberLink wood manufacturing plant at George Town.
Mr Wilson did not believe any of these posed a risk to community safety.
The CEPU argued in the FWC hearing that control room operators have the competence to make assessments on safety decisions, and that the union had directed that power be restored when safety risks were proven.
But TasNetworks argued that, during the emergency period, staff had to comply with its directions.
Mr Wilson found that the CEPU had not enabled the safety directions to be followed correctly.
"Interpretation and performance of the Safety Commitments in the field was carried out by the CEPU and its members, who made their own value judgements as to employee and community safety," he wrote.
"The evidence before me about the five case examples identified by Mr King is that the commitments have been ineffective.
"If the purpose of the Safety Commitments was to swiftly ensure temporary suspension of protected industrial action in identified cases so as to avoid or overcome threats to community safety, then plainly that has not been achieved."
He ordered the suspension of the CEPU's industrial action for one month from September 3.
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