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.”