200 port posts to go despite talks

Port operator DP World Australia will cut 200 jobs in Sydney and Melbourne to mitigate against months of volume losses.

The port operations of DP World Australia at Port Botany, in Sydney. Picture: AAP

The nation’s biggest port operator, DP World Australia, will cut 200 jobs in Sydney and Melbourne, citing the need to mitigate the negative impact of months of volume losses.

The jobs cuts, which were slammed by the maritime union, are in addition to 50 workers in Melbourne who have taken voluntary redundancies and will leave the company this week.

DPWA chief operating officer Andrew Adam said the new round of redundancies was a direct result of volume losses experienced by the company since September.

He said the company has been postponing the cuts while enterprise bargaining negotiations continued with the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union, but the company and unions had failed to secure an agreement and legal industrial ­action had continued.

“In the absence of significant negotiation progress over the past nine months, the company must push on and address the impact of volume losses,” Mr Adam said.

“We have been very patient, but further restructures of our workforce have become necessary.

“We have not taken the decision to downsize lightly.”

Ongoing industrial action across DP World’s Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle terminals continued to have an impact on the entire supply chain, causing delays and adding costs for importers, exporters and shipping lines. “Four vessels have been redirected to other stevedores in July to mitigate delays, and we estimate 40 vessels and up to 110,000 containers will be delayed,” he said.

The CFMEU’s maritime union division said the timing of the announcement, during a period of protected industrial action, was a clear attempt to threaten workers into accepting cuts to their rights and conditions.

Its assistant national secretary, Warren Smith, said DP World “sacking workers and destroying families to achieve an industrial outcome was an extreme act that reflected the unfettered corporate power available to bosses in today’s society”.