Ports of Auckland and Maritime Union join forces to agree industry first

Maritime Union New Zealand (MUNZ) and Ports of Auckland (POAL) have today agreed to a pay structure which provides Stevedore more stability of income.

Mar­itime Union New Zealand (MUNZ) and Ports of Auck­land (POAL) have today agreed to a pay struc­ture which pro­vides Steve­dore more sta­bil­i­ty of income.

In an indus­try first, Ports of Auck­land Steve­dores will move to a salaried income, pro­vid­ing sta­bil­i­ty of income for fam­i­lies at a time when the cost of liv­ing is pinch­ing.

Mar­itime Union spokesper­son Rus­sell Mayn MUNZ Sec­re­tary for Local 13 say it’s an oppor­tune time for both par­ties to agree the col­lec­tive giv­en the uncer­tain­ties sur­round­ing the future of the port.

“The intro­duc­tion of dynam­ic ros­ter­ing will be a game chang­er for a work life bal­ance for Steve­dores going for­ward. For the port of Auck­land and its Mar­itime Union mem­bers this will be the first salaried con­tact” says Rus­sell.

The exten­sion of the cur­rent col­lec­tive agree­ment to 2024 pro­vides sta­bil­i­ty for the port and its share­hold­er. The extra years exten­sion will include an increase of pay in line with con­sumer price index (CPI) with an upper lim­it. It also includes 40-hour salaries for Steve­dores.

Ports of Auck­land CEO Roger Gray says the col­lab­o­ra­tion between the port and union has been ben­e­fi­cial for every­one involved.

“I’m proud of how the two organ­i­sa­tions have worked col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly on this change. This change pro­vides pay cer­tain­ty to our Steve­dores. This agree­ment also gives employ­ees the abil­i­ty to bud­get, plan, and work with banks on secur­ing finan­cial sup­port for things like first home buy­ing” he says.

This is just the start. The port and MUNZ will con­tin­ue work­ing togeth­er using their new “high engage­ment” mod­el on a new Steve­dore ros­ter­ing sys­tem to be imple­ment­ed in 2023. The new ros­ter­ing will give the port assur­ances they have the resources to meet ship­ping needs while also giv­ing Steve­dores more say in the shifts they work, sup­port­ing a bet­ter work-life bal­ance.

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