Job losses averted at Port Otago

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says an agree­ment it has reached with Port Ota­go Lim­it­ed is a “win win” sit­u­a­tion that will pre­vent job loss­es.

Mar­itime Union Nation­al Pres­i­dent Phil Adams says a meet­ing of 150 car­go han­dlers held yes­ter­day at Port Chalmers vot­ed in favour of a pro­pos­al ham­mered out by the Unions and the Com­pa­ny.

Mem­bers of the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand and the Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union attend­ed the meet­ing.

Mr Adams says the pro­pos­al will see no com­pul­so­ry redun­dan­cies amongst the work­force.

“We believe the work­force will respond to the Com­pa­ny’s efforts by con­tin­u­ing to ensure a high lev­el of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.”

He says some out­stand­ing issues around the work force struc­ture were also addressed by the Unions.

“This is a mutu­al­ly accept­able solu­tion for Port Ota­go and its work­force and we are very hap­py that after some time a nego­ti­at­ed solu­tion has been put in place.”

A num­ber of vol­un­tary redun­dan­cies are occur­ring at Port Ota­go.

Mr Adams says he believes that the agree­ment was a pos­i­tive step for­ward for Port Ota­go, and would lead to a stronger future for this major New Zealand port.

“It is a dif­fi­cult eco­nom­ic peri­od, but the Port has weath­ered dif­fi­cult times before and we are con­fi­dent we will this time as well.”

Port Ota­go Lim­it­ed is owned by the peo­ple of Ota­go through the Ota­go Region­al Coun­cil.

ENDS

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Mar­itime Union Nation­al Pres­i­dent Phil Adams on 0274 377601