An update on the current industrial action by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) that is impacting the major stevedores at Sydney’s Port Botany terminal and the impact on additional nation ports.
DP World Sydney reach an in-principal agreement with MUA
DP World Sydney has reached an “in-principal” enterprise agreement with the MUA for the next three years at their Port Botany Terminal.
Patrick Terminals welcomes MUA backdown
Patrick Terminals have come to an agreement with the MUA to solve their industrial dispute that is currently impacting their national ports. Following advice from the Freight and Trade Alliance (FTA) /Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA), immediate action is needed to create to permanent solution for both parties.
After a day and a half of talks with the Fair Work Commission (FWC), the MUA announced it would immediately end all industrial action at Patricks Terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle.
Patrick CEO Michael Jovicic said the MUA had inflicted unnecessary pain across the nations supply chain and now walked away with nothing.
“Having lost in the court of public opinion they decided to retreat to fight another day.”
During the talks the MUA rejected a generous offer of 1.5% pay increases for each year for 4 years with no changes to their current conditions or rosters.
In addition, Patricks offered to hire 50 new workers at Port Botany to assist with the current back log and congestion at the port. Patricks also offered job security and no forced redundancies for the life of the agreement.
Mr Jovicic said that he was surprised that the MUA rejected their offer.
“At least now we can get on with clearing the backlog which exceeds more than 100,000 containers around Australia. This is estimated to take between two to three months to return to normal”
Although this resolution between Patricks and the MUA provides temporary relief from the current dispute, there are no guarantees of relief from future industrial related disruptions.
The matter between the two is scheduled for further discussion with the FWC on the 26 October 2020.
We will continue to monitor the landscape and provide updates where necessary.
