Disruption across 17 ports threatens Christmas deliveries as Svitzer workers face lockout

An indefinite lockout of tug boat crews by the nation’s biggest tug boat operator threatens major disruption at ports across five states.

Management from tug boat operator, Svitzer, has informed harbour towage employees and their unions of a planned lockout on November 18. Picture: Glenn Campbell

An indefinite lockout of tug boat crews by the nation’s biggest tug boat operator threatens major disruption at ports across five states, jeopardising deliveries to businesses and consumers in the lead-up to Christmas.

The tug boat operator, Svitzer, revealed it would lock out 582 workers indefinitely from Friday, meaning no vessels would be towed in or out of 17 ports serviced by the company in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.

Svitzer, which is proceeding with a contentious bid to terminate an enterprise agreement with maritime unions following an unresolved three-year fight over employment conditions and managerial control, initiated the lockout after almost 2000 hours of industrial action by unions in the past month.

Maritime Union of Australia national secretary Paddy ­Crumlin accused the company, owned by international shipping giant Maersk, of “triggering a massive nationwide industrial conflict” that would throw already struggling supply chains into disarray.

“After almost three years reaping massive dividends from the supply chain pressures of Covid-19, Svitzer has amassed a corporate war chest to fund a damaging and disruptive lock-out that will now bring Australia’s ports to a grinding halt,” Mr Crumlin said.

Svitzer said the industrial action was harming its ability to ­reliably, safely and efficiently serve shipping customers and port operations around the country and “causing serious disruption to the national supply chain which is reliant on shipping”.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke said the long-running battle between Svitzer ­and unions was “a classic example of the kind of intractable dispute” that Labor’s industrial reactions changes would bring to an end.

Labor’s bill gives greater power to the Fair Work Com­mission to ­arbitrate intractable disputes.

“This dispute has gone on for years. We want disputes like this to be resolved quickly and fairly – it’s in no one’s interests for them to drag on,” Mr Burke said.

Svitzer Australia managing director Nicolaj Noes.

According to Svitzer, there have been more than 1100 instances of industrial action notified by the maritime unions since Oct­ober 2020, with new action notified almost daily.

“With each instance of industrial action, valuable imports and exports are delayed, disrupted, or goods and produce lost,” the company said.

Svitzer Australia managing director Nicolaj Noes said the company had bargained exhaustively in good faith to try to reach a new enterprise agreement.

“We had hoped it would never come to a lockout – but we are at a point where we see no other ­option but to respond to the damaging industrial action under way by the unions,” he said.

“We sincerely regret the ­difficulties and disruption this lockout presents to our customers and other stakeholders within the supply chain, including ultimately, every Australian consumer.”

Svitzer has applied to terminate the agreement after seeking through bargaining to remove what it says are restrictive work practices that give unions too much influence over management decisions.

 

Svitzer says unions have to be consulted on every crew hire and can dispute selection decisions. Union delegates must sit in on interviews and get paid for attending interviews.

According to the company, the current agreement dictates in what order and classification of worker can be asked to fill in for employees who are absent or on leave.

It says the agreement provides for employees called in to provide relief work for short jobs to be paid a full day’s salary – plus 100 per cent of the day’s rate as overtime - independent of the hours worked on call-in.

Svitzer says an employee called in from leave to work for, say, four hours, could receive two days’ pay.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

In some ports because of local agreements, an employee working four hours may receive up to four days’ pay.

Mr Crumlin said the company’s Australian management team had spent the past three years refusing to finalise a new agreement, effectively giving workers a wage freeze amid soaring inflation and massive corporate profits.

“Svitzer representatives have repeatedly turned up to negoti­ations with sudden and unreasonable demands which they know will derail the negotiation process and undermine the prospect of a mutually agreeable outcome,” Mr Crumlin said.

“In September 2020, on the cusp of agreement, they dropped a fresh log of claims running to 30 new demands that the union had been given no prior warning of.

“This was done with the obvious intention of preventing any ­further progress and delaying an outcome while they pursued legal action against the workforce in the Fair Work Commission.”

Svitzer applied to the commission in January 2022 to terminate the lapsed agreement and throw the workforce back on to the basic award.

“This would result in pay cuts of up to 47 per cent, the casualisation of permanent roles and the undermining of important safety ­standards that have been hard-won by workers over many years of negotiation,” Mr Crumlin said.