Thousands of homes across Sydney's north shore are still without power as one of Australia's largest trade unions says the outages could have been fixed faster if not for budget cuts and privatisation.

More than 50,000 people in Hornsby, Chatswood and surrounding suburbs were without power at the height of Tuesday's storms. Some 13,000 residences remained without electricity heading into the weekend.

A fallen tree branch on Merrima Street in Gordon on Tuesday. Some residents remained without power until the weekend. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

In the past two months, 325 workers from Ausgrid were let go due to financial constraints. Roughly 80 per cent of those were frontline workers who would be working on repairs this week, sources close to Ausgrid said.

Ausgrid workers have a 56-hour working week cap, which was this week extended for some to 64 hours after bushfires in the north of the state and huge storm damage in northern Sydney.