Western Power employees have walked off the job for 48 hours after last minute talks failed to resolve the dispute between the utility and the Electrical Trades Union.

Residents in the Metropolitan area and the South West can still report any faults or outages to Western Power, with the union promising to respond to any emergencies.

However, all scheduled maintenance work for the next two days has been cancelled.

More than 800 workers will down tools, demanding staffing and pay issues are resolved.

Western Power says it will meet with the union again today.

Energy Minister Bill Johnston told Gareth Parker he hopes the groups can meet a resolution.

“At the end of the day, we want to provide a fair outcome for the workers at Western Power.”

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