‘Sick to death’: Burke refuses to intervene in wharfs dispute

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has refused to intervene in DP World’s pay dispute with wharfies, accusing the port operator of waging a media campaign and warning that people were “sick to death” of profitable companies using wages as a scapegoat for soaring prices.

Burke took aim at DP World’s Oceania vice president Nicolaj Noes hours after meeting with him, saying he had trouble believing the executive had the interests of consumers at heart given he effectively warned he would shut down ports during a previous union dispute while working for tugboat operator Svitzer last year.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has refused to intervene in DP World’s pay dispute with wharfies.Credit: James Brickwood

“I have made it clear to both groups today that I have no intention of intervening,” Burke told a press conference in Sydney on Thursday afternoon after meeting separately with Noes and Maritime Union of Australia assistant national secretary Adrian Evans in the morning.

“I think people are sick to death of being told that their wages are always the problem. People have had enough of some of the most profitable businesses in the world being able to say that anything they do that maximises their profit is nothing about consumers, but if there is something to assist their workforce, then consumers get punished.”

In March, DP World posted a $US1.8 billion ($2.72 billion) profit for the 2022 calendar year. Late last year the company increased prices on containers exported from Melbourne by up to 52 per cent.

Burke’s comments followed industry pleas for the minister to step in to resolve the drawn-out pay negotiations between union members and the Dubai-based stevedore, which has a 40 per cent stake in Australia’s ports to prevent store shelves going bare and the price of goods increasing.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called on the government to stand up to union interests, warning it was in the national interest for the government to step in.

“We will end up paying more for prices, or people will lose their jobs because we’re going to see shelves that have got ‘out of stock’ signs on them because they can’t get the product in,” he told radio station 2GB on Thursday.

The MUA pulled back on some industrial action over the weekend to prevent DP World from locking out its workforce. However, two-hour stoppages and other work bans have gone ahead as the parties continue to hash out a new enterprise agreement, with the union calling for a 16 per cent pay rise over two years.

Burke has the power under workplace laws to call for the Fair Work Ombudsman to arbitrate the dispute if he believes the impasse will create significant economic harm.

DP World had called for this to occur, but the MUA did not and the Australian Council of Trade Unions told the government to stay out of the negotiations.

Burke said he had made clear to DP World during Thursday’s meeting that “if they had invested as much into negotiating as they have into their media campaign, they may already have an agreement”.

“The concept that where every other business in Australia is expected to negotiate with their workforce, but this business wants to rely on ministerial intervention, is not a view that impresses me,” he said.

“Their presumption that they would find a political answer, rather than do what every other business in Australia is expected to do, was misguided.”

Noes said DP World’s request for government intervention was driven “by the severe economic impact of customer frustration and a substantial backlog of containers”.

“The company is committed to the Fair Work Commission process to find a fair and sustainable resolution that addresses the consequences of the industrial action and seeks to end it,” he said.

Noes was the managing director of Svitzer in November 2022 when the company warned it would lock out workers involved in a pay dispute with the tugboat company in retaliation against industrial action.

On that occasion, Burke supported the Fair Work Commission imposing orders to terminate industrial action, accusing the company of engaging in “economic vandalism”.

The global company is a private entity majority owned by the government of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, which is a federation of monarchies.

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