Jul-Aug 2008

Peace Treaty: Patrick forced to settle out of court

PAY DAY: Port Botany wharfie Adrian Simmons <br>with 3 yr old son Reece collects his first cheque

PAY DAY: Port Botany wharfie Adrian Simmons
with 3 yr old son Reece collects his first cheque

PAY DAY: Port Botany wharfie Adrian Simmons with 3 yr old son Reece collects his first cheque, Saturday, June 13, after nearly 3 months on a sustenance wage provided by the labour movement and the community.

Patrick Port Botany workers were put off pay on March 18 when Minister for Workplace Relations, Peter Reith, advised that they could not be paid if they refused to work overtime. Then came the lockout, then a month back on the job keeping the labour hire companies afloat while they traded back into the black - all without pay.

A landmark peace settlement, ending months of war on the waterfront was clinched with Patrick Stevedores on August 5.

National Secretary John Coombs signed off the Deed of Settlement at 2pm, only hours before the Federal Court was to put the companies employing MUA labour into receivership. Last minute hitches to the agreement led to a flurry of phone calls between both parties during the morning and continued while the court sat.

By the end of August 689 permanent workers were employed directly by Patrick Stevedores Holdings along with around 450 casual and guaranteed wages earners.All litigation against the union was dropped.

Industrial agreements covering container terminals, bulk and general were ratified by the Industrial Relations Commission within the month.

The labour hire companies devised by Patrick to sack the MUA members were wound down by mid-October as the 626 taking redundancy packages leave the industry. These included around 200 cleaner, security and maintenance positions outsourced to contractors.

Security guards employed during the lockout are now gone.
The peace settlement brought an end to the infamous double shift that saw families fall apart and increasing deaths and injuries on the wharves, as waterside workers laboured up to 15 hours a day, 70 hours a week.

It included payment of MUA legal costs ($1.8 million) and all outstanding wages and entitlements for the duration of the dispute.

Legal action against the MUA, its officers and members was withdrawn in the Federal Court, the High Court, the Supreme Courts of WA, NSW and Victoria, and against the ITF in the English High Court. In exchange the Maritime Union dropped its conspiracy charges against both Patrick and the Government in the Federal Court. And the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission dropped its action against the union.

"Our legal advice was we would win our case in court, hands down," said John Coombs. "But, with appeals, it could have taken a couple of years. By this time the labour hire companies would have gone into liquidation, it would have cost millions and there was every chance that when we did finally win the day that Lang Corp, too, could have disappeared along with the millions owed in damages to our members."

Mr Coombs told packed stop work meetings in July that it was 'a big ask' to expect the labour movement to keep up sustenance payments and vigils outside the gates: "Our members would have lost their jobs, we would not have been able to keep community support going that long, operations would have closed down and, in the worst case scenario, union busting labour trained by P&C Group would have been back on the wharves taking our jobs.

"It was always our primary aim to get our members their jobs back. That always came first," he said. "But not at any cost"

Under Patrick corporate restructuring scam union members
were transferred into labour hire firms, assets were secretly transferred out and the contract to supply labour for Patrick operations cancelled. The aim was to let the labour hire firms go broke, leaving everyone without a job, entitlements, wages owing or redundancy.

When Patrick appointed administrators on the night of April 7, only hours before workers were pulled off the wharves by guards with dogs, the administrators were expected to put the labour hire companies into liquidation immediately. They did not oblige. If they had, the little money in the companies would have been distributed to the creditors,
with the banks first in line.

Although the union successfully fought in the courts to get members back in the gates in May, they were still only employed by labour hire firms. For three months they were only been paid a portion of their wages, based on money available from the labour hire companies - minus costs.
The threat of the banks foreclosing and sending the companies into liquidation was ever present.

Negotiations were intense but concluded with the union winning ground on all issues. At the outset Patrick was pushing for closure of seven ports, mass redundancies of around 1,700 and the contracting out of lashing, cleaning, maintenance and security to non-union workers, presumably those employed as 'scabs' during the dispute, along with massive cuts in wages and conditions.

"We started from scratch," said National Organiser Mick O'Leary. "No rosters, no aggregate wage, no penalty pay, not much left of the award; in short Mr Corrigan thought he could get the same results with us back in the gate as he was getting when we were all locked out."

National Secretary John Coombs and ACTU Assistant Secretary Greg Combet worked with national organisers Mick O'Leary and Jim Tannock on developing the framework agreement, the deed of settlement and both industrial agreements.
Mick O'Leary said the whole process was fraught with conflict. "They haven't changed," he said. "It's going to be difficult. They're still out to get us. Our people must keep alert to the traps they are hoping we will tumble into."

Negotiations continued painfully, all the time the threat of liquidation driving both parties to edge towards a settlement. Meanwhile the Government attempted to bribe MUA members with publicly funded redundancies so they would leave en masse, non union workers replacing them.

"But they failed," said Coombs. "While they now trumpet waterfront reform and a government/company victory over the union, I must say any victorythey claim is a hollow one.

"What we've got is essentially an out-of-court settlement and Patrick are paying all the costs," he said. "In such cases I don't think there is any doubt in the public mind who really won out."

The settlement guarantees MUA members locked out in April have real jobs back under the legitimate and solvent stevedoring company, Patrick Stevedores Holdings.
The Stevedoring Industry Award, the right to belong to a union and the right to bargain collectively are all enshrined in the framework agreement, which was endorsed overwhelmingly by Patrick employees nationwide.
Federal Parliament passed funding in the form of 'soft loans' for voluntary redundancies in July. The money will be repaid via a levy on all stevedoring companies in the industry.

Patrick maintenance workers took redundancies from Patrick
and preference of employment with a national contractor agreed to with the union - US multinational Fluor Daniel.
Under the settlement the contractor employs MUA members
under the Stevedoring Industry Award and an enterprise agreement negotiated with the union. They work exclusively in stevedoring. The contract with Patrick to supply maintenance is for three years.

Members who have worked as cleaners or security can also apply for jobs with contractors.

Redundant maintenance, cleaning and security workers can also apply for stevedoring jobs with Patrick.
Voluntary redundancies will be selected on the basis of age and years of service according to the industry (R&R) agreement.

The company remains party to the Stevedoring Industry Award
and all other applicable industrial awards and agreements.
Any moves to strip the Award of entitlements such as penalty rates have been dropped. Under the agreement, the company is committed to keeping as many full time employees as possible.

An aggregate wage based on 35 hours ordinary time and five hours overtime per week delivers salaries at the terminals ranging from $51,000 to $61,000 for team leaders. Productivity bonus payments and overtimeare on top of this salary. The union has also negotiated a 12 per cent pay rise overthree years starting in January 1999. Previously salaries averaged $70,000 per annum. But to earn this members had to work between 50-60 hours a week.

"We have ensured that our members will lose very little in earnings, without having to work long arduous shifts that gave them little time for their families and their community," said John Coombs. "We envisage that in the long term this will create jobs for the manymembers relying on casual and part time work."

National Organiser Jim Tannock said a major breakthrough in the negotiations was the agreement to keep all MUA casual and guaranteed wage earners:

"They wanted to sack the lot and have them reapply for their jobs," said Jim."But we kept them and we're pushing to have a career path for them in the industrial agreement so they can fill any places that come up further down the track with people leaving. It makes a big difference
keeping them with us. It means we are looking at around a quarter of the workforce accepting redundancy, not half as Reith and Corrigan claim."

Enhanced superannuation benefits and rosters are also embedded in the industrial agreement. Members can save on tax by making voluntary superannuation contributions (salary sacrifice).

The 14x2 roster gives Patrick employees 6.5 weeks rostered time off in addition to their five weeks annual leave.
While the agreement sets a target of 25 net lifts/hour, productivity bonusesin fact kick in at around 19 lifts/hour in ports with small cargo exchange and 21 lifts/hour at the bigger ports of Sydney and Melbourne. This is in acknowledgement of the different conditions and volumes at various ports and prevailing productivity figures.

To help lift productivity, MUA supplementary labour now do lashing. This means the crane rate is measured from the first to last lift as the portainer driver will be ready to start work at the beginning of shift.
The lashing gang is on a minimum call-out of two hours.
Similar conditions apply at Patrick general stevedoring operations where the company dropped all threats to close down seven regional ports for at least 12 months.

War on the Waterfront articles

This page: http://mua.org.au/war/peace.html
Last Modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 19:31:58 EST

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