Court Decision creates major concerns for Lyttelton port workforce

Lyt­telton port work­ers are dis­ap­poin­ted with an Employ­ment Court rul­ing that allows Lyt­telton Port Com­pany (LPC) to pro­ceed with a restruc­ture that will remove highly exper­i­enced fore­men from the water­front.

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ) and the Rail and Mari­time Trans­port Uni­on (RMTU) are con­sid­er­ing their response to the judg­ment from the Employ­ment Court in Christ­ch­urch released on Fri­day 8 August.

The decision fol­lows an inter­im injunc­tion gran­ted by the Court in early July, which hal­ted the restruc­ture, and an earli­er determ­in­a­tion from the Employ­ment Rela­tions Author­ity which found LPC had breached its oblig­a­tions.

The new decision gives the green light for the destruc­tion of jobs, which Uni­ons say is part of a hos­tile approach by LPC man­age­ment.

LPC had been seek­ing to elim­in­ate 24 full time fore­man and at least 20 reliev­ing fore­man covered by the col­lect­ive agree­ment, and replace them with 21 new roles on indi­vidu­al agree­ments.

MUNZ Lyt­telton Branch Pres­id­ent Ger­ard Load­er says the decision is a blow to port safety and pro­duct­ive rela­tion­ships.

“This restruc­ture will remove the fore­men who are the last line of defence against tragedy on our wharves. We are con­cerned at the col­lapse of the rela­tion­ship between the work­force and an aggress­ive man­age­ment, which is under­min­ing the future of the port.”

Mr Load­er con­tras­ted the prob­lems at Lyt­telton Port Com­pany with the recent suc­cess of Port of Auck­land (POAL) where uni­ons had achieved a major turn­around for the troubled port with a con­struct­ive rela­tion­ship with POAL CEO Roger Gray, a former CEO at LPC.

“It would be a bad out­come if Lyt­telton had to go through the same pain­ful destruct­ive pro­cess that POAL did for many years, before a new and pro­gress­ive approach was put in place.”

RMTU Lyt­telton Branch Sec­ret­ary Mark Wilson says the judg­ment, while dis­ap­point­ing, is not sur­pris­ing.

He says a good employ­er does not oper­ate by min­im­um leg­al require­ments, which LPC man­age­ment have now admit­ted in court is their stand­ard.

“LPC’s approach is not aligned with the CCHL state­ment of intent, and we will con­tin­ue to hold the com­pany to account for its fail­ure to act as a good employ­er,” says Mr. Wilson.

The uni­ons are call­ing on the LPC Board and its own­er, Christ­ch­urch City Hold­ings Lim­ited (CCHL), to com­mit to a genu­inely pro­duct­ive and cooper­at­ive rela­tion­ship.

MUNZ and the RMTU are com­mit­ted to defend­ing their mem­bers’ jobs and a safe work­place, and will con­tin­ue the fight to keep the Port of Lyt­telton in pub­lic hands for the bene­fit of all Can­tab­ri­ans.