At least 600 staff have reportedly been stood down from the $36 billion Inpex gas project in Darwin over a contract dispute.
Construction group Laing O'Rourke has stood down around 245 local workers and around 395 fly-in fly-out workers over a dispute with its consortium partner Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
The two companies were jointly awarded a contract to construct a network of four massive cryogenic tanks for the project in 2012.
Principal contractor JKC Australia says the local workers have been told to go home while fly-In fly-out workers will be placed on the next available flight out.
Laing O'Rourke and Kawasaki are part of a consortium tasked with constructing a network of four massive cryogenic tanks for the project.
JKC says that contract remained in place and it was confident Laing O'Rourke and Kawasaki would resolve the dispute.
"JKC's expectation is that the parties will resolve the matters in dispute and the works will continue," Executive Director John Bramley said in a statement.
It said the construction of the cryogenic tanks is approximately 91 per cent complete.
Workers taken by surprise
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said the lay-offs had taken workers by surprise.
"Laing O-Rourke has shipped everyone off-site on the buses, and they will be getting de-mobed today from Darwin on planes and sent home to be redundant and without a job," CFMEU spokesman Josh Burling told the ABC.
The head contractor JKC Australia LNG told the ABC it had let go of 640 direct employees.
Laing O'Rourke said a further 200 sub-contractors were also impacted.
Labor calls for jobs to be saved
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has called for the workers to be immediately reinstated.
"I think it is a pretty sad state of affairs when a thousand blue-collar tradies get sent home from Darwin and sent interstate because one company cannot sort out a contractual dispute with another company," he said.
"It is not fair. I think the (federal) government should try to facilitate talks to get these guys back to work because the work needs to be done and they are a good workforce."
