Tony Burke to meet with DP World for first time during port dispute

Tony Burke has finally agreed to sit down with the nation’s second biggest stevedore more than three months after industrial action started, causing major delays to shipping.

Stevedores at DP World returned to work on Monday morning following late-night negotiations on Sunday. Picture: NCA Newswire

Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke has suddenly agreed to meet with the nation’s second biggest port operator DP World over its battle with the Maritime Union, in the Albanese government’s first intervention in the biggest industrial action on the ports for nearly a decade.

The protected industrial action, which has resulted in the shutting down of DP World terminals on certain days and caused major delays to shipping, is estimated by the stevedore to have so far cost the nation more than $84m a week.

The MUA backed down on Monday from plans for eight hour delays and bans on certain shipping lines, but will go ahead with lower-level stoppages and disruptions.

The Australian revealed on Monday that Mr Burke and Anthony Albanese had knocked back several requests from DP World representatives for a meeting since its dispute with the MUA began in October last year.

After agreeing only to put forward staffers for a meeting this week, Mr Burke’s office changed foot later in the day and agreed to meet with DP World.

Mr Burke told The Australian: “(Monday) is my first day back from leave and I made the decision this morning to personally meet with DP World.”

A DP World spokesman also said the company’s officials would meet with Mr Burke on Thursday morning.

DP World Oceania vice-president Nicolaj Noes said he had requested but not been given time with either the Prime Minister or Mr Burke, though his firm does brief their offices almost daily.

“There is a lot of industrial action afoot from the MUA and I think that is an indication that they have an underlying strategy of inflicting pain and creating delays and disruption,” Mr Noes said.

DP World, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Victorian opposition ports spokeswoman Roma Britnell, and import/exporters have called for either the federal or state governments to call in the Fair Work Commission for mandatory arbitration but this has not happened.

MUA assistant national secretary Adrian Evans has also not had a meeting with Mr Albanese or Mr Burke – but has made a point of not requesting one as he believes this is a matter between the company and the union. MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin has not met with either regarding DP World.

The escalating ports dispute puts front and centre the conflict between a union-backed Labor government that wants to support workers’ rights, and the productivity of Australia as the cost-of-living crisis escalates.

The Prime Minister’s office on Monday reiterated that the two parties needed to work together.

“The government will continue to closely monitor the impact of the dispute and urges the parties to increase their efforts to reach a negotiated outcome,” a spokeswoman from the Prime Minister’s office said.

The government would not comment on why it had so far refused requests for a meeting with DP World and said there are some matters already being heard by the FWC.

DP World has been having regular meetings with government staffers.

Meanwhile, Mr Noes and Mr Evans held an “unofficial” virtual meeting with the FWC on Monday afternoon with plans for further discussions this week, but these are non-binding conversations rather than arbitration.

“The matter is currently before the FWC and the parties are involved in intensive negotiations,” the spokeswoman from the Prime Minister’s office said.

There are now more than 48,000 containers that have been delayed as a result of the action taken by workers.

The MUA has been taking selective industrial action at DP World ports since October last year over pay and rostering, and wishes to bring its enterprise bargaining agreements in line with rival stevedores, so multi-employer bargaining applies.

Stevedores at DP World returned to work on Monday after major stop-works on Friday.

Terminals in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Fremantle will now have two-hour work stoppages all this week and a 24-hour ban on loading and unloading trucks and trains at all ports this coming Friday.

MUA assistant national secretary Adrian Evans.

Mr Evans said workers will be able to clear some of those backlogs over the weekend on overtime rates, a move designed to try to force “DP World back to the table”.

“We are trying to make sure DP World doesn’t escalate the dispute and start to harm the economy,” Mr Evans said.

Many exporters and shipping groups say damage is already occurring. Mr Evans believes the Dubai-based shipping company is trying to lure the MUA into the type of industrial response which would warrant a lockout of staff.

“I think that’s what they are trying to do. I think they are trying to bait us into a response but we are not falling for that,” Mr Evans said.

The next slated round of industrial action is now due to occur from January 22 and will include eight-hour work stoppages on vessels.

The union also received permission from the FWC on Friday for a 16-hour stoppage across all ports, but this process takes four weeks for staff to vote on and DP World must be given a week’s notice.

It’s been a quarter of a century since the ports were the focus of a dispute over industrial relations and the trade union movement. In the Patrick Stevedores dispute of 1998, the stevedore was backed by the Howard government and eventually succeeded in reducing headcount and employment costs.

But with a Labor government in charge federally and at the key states impacted by the DP World dispute, being Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, the dynamics have changed.

Shipping Australia has been infuriated by the Victorian government’s consistent failures to acknowledge that industrial action has been behind the disruptions at the Port of Melbourne, the nation’s largest container port, accounting for more than a third of shipping volumes.

Shipping Australia spokesman Jim Kelly said not only did Victorian Ports and Freight Minister Melissa Horne incorrectly state to parliament in December that there were no significant supply chain disruptions at the Port of Melbourne, after acknowledging there was a problem, the draft declaration excluded industrial relations.

“We wrote to the Department of Transport and Planning saying there is industrial action going on, it is significant, it’s serious, it’s disrupting supply chains and you need to do a declaration,” Mr Kelly said. “We told them industrial relations was the problem and they didn’t put it in their draft documentation.”

It was only included in the final documentation after complaints by Shipping Australia and the Freight and Trade Alliance, Mr Kelly said.

Ms Britnell said: “The minister must explain why she excluded industrial action from the terms of reference of this group – a decision that will only enable more disruption and cause higher prices for Victorians already struggling to make ends meet.”

A key element of the dispute between the MUA and DP World is about pay. The MUA said it is asking for a 16 per cent pay rise over two years, which is still below the rate paid by bigger rival Patrick. DP World said they are after 27 per cent over two years. The discrepancy is explained by the union’s request for backplay, termed a sign-on fee from the period the EBA expired last year.