Major changes coming to New Zealand waterfront employment

The New Zea­l­and water­front industry is on the brink of a new era, thanks to years of organ­iz­ing work and the ded­ic­a­tion of one water­front work­er in par­tic­u­lar.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says the Uni­on has nego­ti­ated a new col­lect­ive employ­ment agree­ment with ISO, a major New Zea­l­and steve­doring com­pany owned by Aus­trali­an cor­por­ate Qube.

Mr Har­ris­on says some of the key com­pon­ents of the agree­ment were around improved ros­ter­ing, avail­ab­il­ity, and sol­id increases in wage rates.

He says the agree­ment is “ground break­ing”, and sets a new stand­ard in the steve­doring industry.

“Put simply, these innov­at­ive improve­ments will mean water­front work­ers have the oppor­tun­ity for work life bal­ance, dig­nity, and the abil­ity to plan their per­son­al and fam­ily life.”

Mr Har­ris­on says the ‘avail­ab­il­ity’ clause is a major step for­ward, which com­pensates work­ers for time they are expec­ted to be avail­able for work.

This is a major issue on the water­front, where ship­ping delays can play hav­oc with work sched­ules and the lives of work­ers.

The newly nego­ti­ated agree­ment comes after years of leg­al battles.

Mr Har­ris­on cred­its two MUNZ mem­bers in Taur­anga, George Lye and Mana Tam­atea, for stick­ing with the Uni­on dur­ing some tough years.

ISO employ­ee and MUNZ mem­ber George Lye went to the Employ­ment Court with the back­ing of the Uni­on over his pre­vi­ous ISO employ­ment agree­ment breach­ing the zero-hours law (sec­tion 67D of the Employ­ment Rela­tions Act). The Court found in his favour.

In June 2022, the Employ­ment Rela­tions Author­ity upheld a per­son­al griev­ance case brought by Mr Lye against ISO.

ISO was ordered to pay $22,500 in com­pens­a­tion for fail­ing to com­pensate him for requir­ing him to be per­man­ently avail­able for work, and $15,000 for humi­li­ation and loss of dig­nity suffered as a res­ult of his inab­il­ity to plan any aspect of his life with cer­tainty.

Mr Lye was presen­ted with a spe­cial Solid­ar­ity Award at a Mari­time Uni­on din­ner in Auck­land last week for his role.

Mr Har­ris­on says the new ISO Col­lect­ive Agree­ment will deal with major issues in the port industry all around New Zea­l­and, but espe­cially in Taur­anga.

“The Port of Taur­anga has built an out­sourced labour busi­ness mod­el on the exploit­at­ive treat­ment of work­ers, and this situ­ation is now going to start to change.”

Mr Har­ris­on says there has been a massive prob­lem get­ting work­ers into the industry, as unso­cial con­di­tions, lack of a career path, and a high risk envir­on­ment have made it unat­tract­ive.

He says MUNZ will use the new col­lect­ive agree­ment as the basis for an Fair Pay Agree­ment in the ports sec­tor.

The Uni­on has recently appoin­ted a nation­al organ­izer who will be vis­it­ing all ports in New Zea­l­and in the com­ing months.