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.