Patrick stevedore says it is battling industrial action over its bid to scrap a union hiring veto just as the Morrison government takes an interest in union quotas that require recruits to be sourced from “family and friends”.

Patrick has offered the Maritime Union of Australia wage increases of 2.5 per cent a year for four years if it removes a condition that the company obtain the union’s approval to recruit more workers, which allegedly sees an average seven-month delay in hiring.