Up to 70 per cent of new hires at Hutchison Ports will have to be sourced from employees’ “families and friends” and a union list of names as part of what the wharfies’ union is calling a groundbreaking deal.

The Maritime Union of Australia enterprise agreement, which also includes a landmark clause preventing job losses from automation, covers almost 400 employees at Hutchison’s Port Botany and Brisbane terminals and follows three years of negotiations and industrial action.