MUA, Hutchison Ports finalise peace deal over workers

The Maritime Union of Australia and Hutchison Port agree a workplace deal that will result in no forced redundancies.

Union workers gather at Hutchinson Port at the Port of Brisbane in August.

Wharfies and stevedore Hutchison Ports have made peace after the Maritime Union of Australia “fully endorsed” a workplace deal that will result in no forced redundancies and closes the book on the text message sacking saga that engulfed the waterfront this year.

Both sides claimed a win after MUA members today voted to back a new enterprise bargaining agreement that allows the company to use casual workers at its Sydney and Brisbane ports, with no forced sackings.

Some fulltime workers would convert to casual status under the deal.

The Australian understands around 65 workers have also signed up for a voluntary redundancy program brokered in recent weeks, which offers double the payout outlined in the original enterprise bargaining agreement.

In another crucial breakthrough, the voluntary redundancy deal also gives those who sign up to the program, which expires tomorrow, will have first refusal to come back as casuals when the port is at “maximum capacity”.

The company has also secured an increase in the working week from 30 to 32 hours.

MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith, said today’s vote was “a wonderful result that’s a testament to the courage and tenacity of the Hutchison workers who were prepared to stand on picket lines in rain and shine until they got their jobs back, until they got some form of justice delivered them.

“They’ll all go back in the gate, anyone who wants to go back in. Everyone’s very pleased.”

He added: “this wasn’t just an enterprise agreement, it was a resolution of a dispute that started 102 days ago”.

Mr Smith also acknowledged the “difficult competitive environment across the Australian waterfront” and added that “if the operation’s going, then that’s our job security”.

Acting chief executive of HPA, Mark Jack, stressed the company’s situation was “challenging in a difficult market”.

HPA is still “actively monitoring the environment and considering all options to ensure its ongoing viability”, he said.

Mr Jack said the EBA was struck as a result of support from employees, the MUA and customers, and it will “assist HPA in its struggle to achieve market share against well-established competitors in a market plagued with overcapacity and slow growth”.

“Importantly, the new EBA provides for a new category of flexible casual employees” which “will help HPA manage its significant costs in a difficult environment, providing the company with greatly enhanced flexibility.’

He confirmed workers would have “the right to return as fulltime employees, if they choose, as volumes increase”.

Furore erupted when the MUA claimed almost 100 workers were sacked by text and formed picket lines and blockades at ports in Sydney and Brisbane in August.

The union ended the blockade after orders from the Fair Work Commission’s deputy president Anna Booth but a so-called “community assembly” of workers Hutchison has lingered at the sites.

Hutchison Ports Australia maintains that text message communications were the norm between workers and management. The 11pm SMS to those made redundant pointed to an email letter that set out the procedure.

The Australian revealed last month that the union and the company tore up a much-criticised EBA struck in 2013 when Hong-Kong based Hutchison set up operations in Australia on a mission to break the nation’s stevedoring duopoly.

The 2013 EBA was cheered by the union but seen as inferior to rivals DP World and Asciano and considered unworkable within the industry.