Jul-Aug 2008

WA Conspiracy Inc

NOVEMBER, 1998: The Maritime Union of Australia has successfully launched a second conspiracy case, this time against the Western Australian Government and the Geraldton Port Authority.
The statement of claim, submitted to the Federal Court in Perth, on November 9 alleges that the Geraldton Port Authority, former Minister for Transport Eric Charlton and current Transport Minister Murray Criddle conspired to 'rid' the port of its workers because they were members of the Maritime Union of Australia. The union is also suing for damages and permanent injunctions.
Modelled on the successful court action against Patrick Stevedores, the MUA has won an injunction to prevent the port authority making its workforce redundant on December 31 as planned.
On November 20 Judge Nicholson of the Federal Court ruled the Port Authority could not dismiss any of its employees on the grounds of redundancy, nor cease to provide labour to stevedores operating at the port or make redudundacy offers to current members of the MUA employed by the Geraldton Port Authroity. However it did not order the GPA to withdraw any existing offers of redundancy or prevent port employees accepting the previous offers of redundancy.
Nine of the 40 MUA members and one AMOU member have already accepted redundancies. But remaining members have voted to reject the pre-existing offers of redundancies. The meeting was held by phone hook-up during National Council, with National Secretary John Coombs and WA Branch Secretary Terry Buck and National Industrial Officer Bill Giddens.

"They all stuck firm," said Buck.

The key document obtained by the union lawyers during the discovery process is a letter from the ministers office to the port authority chairman John Durant. It stresses the "proposed course of action" was primarily "developed to rid the Port of MUA influence" "rather than for strict business or economical reasons".
It details the ramifications of meeting the "minister's reform plans for the port" and ensuring the minister "signs off" on ridding Geraldton of MUA members.
This correspondence from ministerial adviser Tony Clarke on behalf of the then minister Eric Charlton, dated June 10, 1998, is most damning in the light of Justice North's April 21 Federal Court decision. Justice North ruled against Patrick because of evidence that the workforce were locked out "because the employees were members of the union..."
In the summery of the decision Justice North said: "There is also evidence that the Patrick owners and other companies in the Patrick group, together with others, agreed on these unlawful acts as part of an overall plan to replace the workforce with non-union labour. This means that there is an arguable case that the Patrick owners and Patrick employers have engaged in an unlawful conspiracy."
Point 15 (a) of Justice North's summary also stresses that Section 298 K(1) of the Workplace Relations Act "gives an important protection of the individual rights of employees to belong to a union if they choose" and the court should be "more ready to protect such rights than merely financial interests."
It is Section 298K of the Act which is the basis for the MUA's conspiracy claim against the WA Government and the Geraldton Port Authority.
In its application to the Court MUA law firm Maurice Blackburn argued that the GPA port workers were entitled to an award and agreement with the Port Authority and that the move to outsource labour was in contravention of the Act. They claimed damages against all three respondents for conspiracy as well as injunctions, both interlocutory and permanent, to prevent them from advancing their conspiracy to do away with union labour at the port.
The statement of claim argued that the GPA should retain the existing employment arrangements which protect and enhance the interest of members.
Outsourcing, the MUA argued, aimed to remove or hinder the ability of the workforce to negotiate collectively and would reduce their conditions of employment and diminish their employment security. This constituted a breach of the Workplace Relations Act and the existing agreement, which included a clause providing for renewal of the agreement prior to the expiry of the agreement. The union said the Port Authority did not, in good faith, enter into any negotiations for replacement or renewal. This was a breach of the terms of the enterprise agreement.
MUA lawyers stressed the workers would suffer loss and damage under the planned arrangement. Port employees would have no job security, their terms and conditions of employment would be altered unfavourably and they would no longer be able to undertake stevedoring work as employees.
In a second letter to Durant on June 16, also signed by Tony Clarke on the minister's behalf, the latest government plot is exposed in all its wicked simplicity - "to outsource a number of nominated services" resulting in the "redeployment or redundancy of employees and remaining employees... only offered continued employment under workplace agreement."
Tony Clarke writes "If this is the case the opportunity to bargain in good faith for an agreement that will not be made cannot exist".
This contradicts earlier public statements by Port Authority chief Durant rejecting any suggestion that the move to license out stevedoring services at the port was aimed at crushing the MUA.
MUA National Secretary John Coombs said the documents "unveiled a Patrick style conspiracy with every suggestion there was ultimately Federal Government involvement. This is particularly so in light of boasts by Workplace Relations Minister that the port privatisation process in WA and Queensland was part and parcel of the governments 'waterfront reform' strategy and more recent boasts by the Port Authority that they would be applying for Maritime Industry Finance Co. (MIFCO) loans to fund the redundancy packages.

"Reith has publicly backed the move all the way," said National Secretary John Coombs. "The conspiracy we've exposed has got all the elements of the Patrick plot, including Dubai trainees waiting in the wings. When this all comes out in court it could prove as damaging to the Court Government, if not more so, than the WA Inc debacle that brought down the previous Labor Government."

The WA Government's initial response was to deny the existence of any incriminating evidence and threaten an appeal. No appeal was lodged. However Charlton and Criddle have been successful in delaying the The Federal Court hearings until March, 1999 to allow the Government to prepare its defence.
Suspicions were first aroused in July when the GPA announced it would outsource all stevedoring work, with preference going to companies using individual contracts (Australian Workplace Agreements) and providing a no-strike clause. This was subsequently withdrawn under threat of legal challenge.
The Port Authority contracted Patrick lawyers Freehill Hollingdale & Page to prepare the licensing agreement. It was FHP lawyers who were involved with Patrick's mass lockout and national waterfront dispute that closed ports for one month in April/May this year.
Now, the union has hard evidence to support its allegations that the move was, indeed, a conspiracy against the Maritime Union and its members.

"The scheme had all the elements of a conspiracy and now we've got the documentation to prove it," said MUA National Secretary John Coombs. "There was no sound commercial reason to outsource the labour in Geraldton; we negotiated a new labour saving scheme for the regional ports in WA back in 1993, cutting the six ports operation costs by $3 million a year. The scheme, which allows for the integration and multi-skilling of labour, halved the Geraldton labour force and tripled productivity."

Port users agree. SMS Shipping & Chartering has criticised moves to axe the scheme and contract out the labour. Acting for United Farmers' Co-operative Co Limited a major employer of port labour, Mr Ron Jones said the workforce had reached worlds best practice.

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A question of intent
JULY, 2000: The Geraldton Port Authority has avoided complying with the Federal Court order to reestablish stevedoring operations.
National Secretary John Coombs and Assistant National Secretary Michael O'Leary report the authority has done this by increasing the hire out rate of the MUA integrated port labour force by up to $5 an hour. This has made the IPLF workforce much more expense than the casual labour available to the stevedoring companies, thus ensuring the port employees get no stevedoring work.

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