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.

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.