Jolt for power industry
Labour shortage for power line work 'beyond ridiculous'
They are highly skilled, highly paid workers making up to $40 an hour and more — and employers are desperate to hire them. Labour shortages are spread throughout B.C.’s economy but today’s must-have workers are the power line technicians who deliver electricity to homes and businesses.
They are highly skilled, highly paid workers making up to $40 an hour and more — and employers are desperate to hire them.
“It has gone beyond ridiculous. I’ve been around this trade now for over 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Paddy Hatch, business manager for the Line Contractors’ Association of B.C. “There is so much work in this trade coming now.”
Hatch has been visiting hockey and rugby clubs to attract people to the trade.
And employers are adding as many apprentices as they can, offering perks to long-time PLTs to stay on the job, forgivable loans to take jobs in hard-to-fill locations, new training programs to encourage people to join the trade, and scouring the Canadian and international market for workers.
Driving the demand for power line workers is record construction, catch-up work after the province’s wild winter storms, new mining developments, replacement of old infrastructure, new transmission lines, the 2010 Olympics, and workers preparing to retire.
“There’s three or four mine sites that we know of for sure that ready to go. The mine sites have been prepared ... but they can’t get going until they get electrical power,” Hatch said from Surrey.
The PLT shortage took Kael Campbell, of Victoria-based Red Seal Recruiting Solutions, to the Philippines, where he interviewed potential employees.
“It really is an international market,” said Campbell.
Canadian companies and public utilities are scouring California, Australia and Great Britain for power line technicians and other electrical workers, he said.
Campbell’s clients include employers in B.C. and as far away as Nova Scotia. “All of these companies want Canadians first,” Campbell said.
Nationally, he has 40 jobs available now and said he could easily fill 80.
Campbell points to Langford’s growth as an example of the demand. “Each new block requires people to hook up each house,” he said.
North American utilities put the minimum needed into maintenance programs and now much of the infrastructure is antiquated, said Bernie Rokstad, CEO of Allteck Inc., which specializes in major electrical projects, with operations in B.C. and Alberta.
Utilities are aiming to catch up and strengthen their infrastructure, he said from Langley. “In the U.S., they are going to spend billions and billions to get their work done” and that requires skilled trades, he said.
Rokstad said that Allteck is a contender for the contract for the new $248- million Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement project, to replace 51-year-old power lines linking the Island with the mainland’s electrical grid.
B.C. Hydro said the submerged cables, delivering about 10 per cent of the Island’s electricity, will be unreliable after this fall and new lines would carry five times as much electricity.
Allteck could use 15 more power line technicians, Rokstad said. Currently it has 80 PLTs and about 20 apprentices. “There is a shortage of PLTs throughout North America.”
During winter storm damage work, Allteck pulled crews in from Alberta and was a major force helping B.C. Hydro restore power. Most of Allteck’s 31 crews were on Vancouver Island repairing damage.
When work slowed in B.C. years ago, many journeymen PLTs headed to the U.S. to work, said Doug McKay, business manager for Local 258 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. About 60 are still there.
In B.C. much of the work with lines is “hot,” meaning the power is not turned off, whereas some PLTs elsewhere are not used to working with energized lines. PLTs in this province are red seal journeymen.
They have finished their apprenticeship and hold a ticket allowing them to work elsewhere in the country.
The IBEW puts PLTs new to B.C. through a “show-me” practical demonstration of the knowledge and skills which includes climbing poles and hooking up transformers, McKay said. Apprentices go to the union’s Electrical Industry Training Institute in Surrey.
“We are training as quickly as we can and still working the old dogs to death,” McKay said. “The problem is, as we train, they retire ... Our fears are more in the experience that we are losing.”
B.C. Hydro is striving to transfer that knowledge by offering older workers flexible work options to gradual retirements, said Samantha Cavan, Hydro’s senior human resources adviser in corporate resources. “There are more and more options as people get closer to retirement.”
Hydro has its “PLT family” of 398 employees, which includes 357 PLTs. The others work with the PLTs in a crew but perform different tasks.
Currently, 101 members of Hydro’s PLT group are eligible for retirement. By 2012, that figure will grow to 156, Hydro said.
Hydro is trying to beef up its PLT ranks with a trades training program to see if someone is suitable for the job, bringing in apprentices, advertising, reaching out to workers in Manitoba and the Yukon, and a referral program encouraging existing staff to bring in resums of PLTs they know, giving $2,500 to the employee if the newcomer stays three months.
Also, forgivable loans are offered to fill jobs in certain locations, such as $45,000 to stay three years in Bella Coola or Masset, and $25,000 to remain five years in Chetwynd, and $9,600 to stay one year as a PLT trouble technician in Burnaby, where the cost of living is high.
Cavan said Hydro is now researching the international market.
Stephanie Jang, Hydro’s senior human relations business partner for field operations, said there are 42 openings for PLTs, with about 34 going to external postings.
Hydro has changed from previously only hiring red seal PLTs to now looking at someone’s potential and abilities. They may get hired and then coached to write for the red seal ticket, Jang said.
THE WORK
Power line technicians:
• Work on high-voltage electrical lines.
• Maintain, install, inspect and repair overhead and underground electrical power systems. They put up poles, towers and guy wires.
• Workers in this trade, with certification following an apprenticeship program, typically work high off the ground, lifted by ladder or bucket truck.
• Some installation jobs mean working in cramped areas such as tunnels.
• Jobs often require workers to be mobile and work on the road.
• Must be physically fit and not afraid of heights.
• In B. C., training is through the union-owned Electrical Industry Training Institute in Surrey, which puts on classes for three levels of apprentices.
• The total apprenticeship is 3.5 years, with five weeks of technical training with the institute each year.
• As of January, B.C. had 174 apprentices registered, up 19 per cent from the previous year, the Industry Training Authority said.
THE PAY
• A journeyman lineman with B.C. Hydro makes $31.86 per hour. On April 1, the rate moves to $32.82.
• A journeyman lineman with private contractors makes $38.82 per hour.
• After eight hours of work, workers get double time.
• The maximum of hours allowed per day is 16, then they must take a break.
• Rates can rise for special circumstances. For example, working with helicopters, and at more than 85 feet in the air all tops up wages.
• Most PLTs in B.C. are unionized, with members of the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 258.
