Next step in attempt to protect secure jobs for Ports workers

The Mari­time Uni­on has today taken fur­ther leg­al steps in an effort to pro­tect secure jobs at Ports of Auck­land.

An injunc­tion was filed in the Employ­ment Court this morn­ing, to halt Ports of Auckland’s pro­posed dis­missal of nearly 300 work­ers, until the Court can rule on wheth­er or not the dis­missals are leg­al.

The Mari­time Uni­on last week asked the Employ­ment Court to determ­ine wheth­er Ports man­age­ment dis­miss­ing its work­force, while in nego­ti­ations over an employ­ment agree­ment for those jobs, is against the law.  The case is set down for late March.

Mari­time Uni­on Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe said that until this case is heard, it is import­ant that the com­pany did not try to push ahead with their plan to dis­miss the work­ers.

“We have nearly 300 work­ers whose job secur­ity is at risk, from a flawed mod­el of con­tract­ing out that may be unlaw­ful.  We will con­tin­ue to chal­lenge this dis­missal.”

“What our mem­bers most want is to get back to work, and get this Port run­ning again.  This can hap­pen with a col­lect­ive agree­ment that pro­tects basic job secur­ity.”

“We remain com­mit­ted to com­plet­ing bar­gain­ing with Ports of Auck­land to achieve this,” Garry Parsloe said.