Patrick bid to end crippling docks strikes

Stevedore says the ‘unrelenting barrage’ of industrial action threatens ‘serious damage’ to the economy.

Port Botany in southern Sydney. Picture: Monique Harmer

Patrick Terminals has applied to terminate the ongoing industrial action by the maritime union, ­declaring the “unrelenting barrage” of stoppages and bans across four states was threatening “serious damage” to the national economy.

The stevedore applied to the Fair Work Commission late on Monday to stop the protected action, telling the tribunal that shipping lines had made clear “in no uncertain terms” that the “situation is becoming untenable”.

Patrick, which handles almost 40 per cent of shipping container volume nationally, applied under section 424 of the Fair Work Act, which allows termination of action if the commission is satisfied the action has threatened, is threatening, or would threaten to cause significant damage to the Australian economy, or an important part of it.

Patrick said vessel delays due to the industrial action were now up to nine days in Melbourne, eight days in Sydney, five days in Fremantle, and two days in ­Brisbane.

In its application, the company said for each day of lost operations, goods worth millions of ­dollars in both imports and exports were lost.

“The effects of port delays moreover cascade throughout the economy in the form of lost sales, costs of transport and storage, and losses in production or productivity where the delayed goods are inputs to other processes such as manufacturing,” Patrick’s submission stated.

“Thousands of businesses will be affected to some degree, as is inevitable in a country with no land borders and where the vast majority of marine freight is containerised.

“These ‘multiplier effects’ are likely to be significant, and ­compounded by the length of the industrial action.”

Given the indefinite nature of the bans, Patrick said the combined effect of current industrial action and further threatened action “would, over time, threaten serious damage to important parts of the Australian economy”.

The company said the industrial action should be terminated rather than suspended.

Patrick Terminals chief executive Michael Jovicic said the company’s terminals had faced an unrelenting barrage of ongoing industrial action since May.

But MUA assistant national secretary Jamie Newlyn said Patrick was acting with belligerence and bad faith in the courts rather than sitting down with its workforce and negotiating a new ­employment agreement that satisfied both sides in the continuing dispute.

“By the admission of Patrick’s parent company in its recent annual report, business is booming,” he said. “Volumes are up, profits are up and executive bonuses are flowing. This is not a business or an industry in distress. It must not be allowed to play the victim here or hijack the sympathies of the Australian community,” he said.

Rather than industrial action, Mr Newlyn said, the true cause of delays at ports included a lack of freight rail capacity to remove containers quickly enough from the quay line, the greater carrying capacity of larger container ships requiring lengthier berthing times, and the simple economic reality of skyrocketing demand for international freight.

“Patrick learned the hard way almost 25 years ago that the Australian community is intolerant of this kind of corporate bullying of a loyal workforce,” he said.