Contracting out behind Ports of Auckland dispute – Maritime Union

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe says a major stum­bling block in the cur­rent indus­tri­al dis­pute at Ports of Auck­land is the con­tract­ing out of work covered in a signed col­lect­ive employ­ment agree­ment between the parties.

He says the Uni­on is pre­pared to lift its strike notice in the new year, but needed an indic­a­tion of good faith from man­age­ment.

“We can work with the com­pany to sort out a timeline on out­stand­ing issues, but we need to see that the com­pany is not just pur­su­ing an exer­cise to cas­u­al­ize the entire work­force, which they have been threat­en­ing.”

Mr Parsloe says if Ports of Auck­land man­age­ment want to make a genu­ine show of good faith, they could make pro­gress by ensur­ing the exist­ing shuttles that move con­tain­ers with­in the port are manned 24/7 by skilled work­ers trained to oper­ate them.

In the event of under­ca­pa­city, Mr Parsloe says the Uni­on is pre­pared to nego­ti­ate in good faith to resolve any issues with­in an agreed time frame.

Indus­tri­al action could be lif­ted as long as man­age­ment nego­ti­ated out­stand­ing issues in good faith.

“Dur­ing the term of the pre­vi­ous agree­ment, Ports of Auck­land man­age­ment con­trac­ted out the shuttle work to a com­pany called Con­linxx, which they are the main own­ers of.”

He says the own­er­ship struc­ture of the Con­linxx ser­vice showed the con­tract­ing out exer­cise was clearly aimed at under­min­ing terms and con­di­tions with­in the signed col­lect­ive agree­ment between the parties.

The Mari­time Uni­on tried to resolve this issue with past and present man­age­ment dur­ing the term of the agree­ment, but the con­tract­ing out had led to a dis­pute over the pro­tec­tion of work­ers live­li­hoods and their fam­il­ies futures

Mr Parsloe says many New Zea­l­and work­ers had exper­i­enced the bad res­ults of con­tract­ing out and cas­u­al­iz­a­tion, which had decim­ated wages and con­di­tions and made work­ing life harder for many people in this coun­try.

“Cas­u­al­iz­a­tion and con­tract­ing out isn’t about pro­ductiv­ity in our view, it is about tak­ing advant­age of work­ers by driv­ing down their wages and con­di­tions.”