Port proposals to reduce worker protections when contracting out unhelpful

Mem­bers of the Mar­itime Union were frus­trat­ed today that in medi­a­tion the Ports of Auck­land has tabled a doc­u­ment that press­es ahead with reduc­tions to job secu­ri­ty for wharfies.

Mar­itime Union pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe said that com­pa­ny pro­pos­als not only reduce employ­ee pro­tec­tions in the event of con­tract­ing out, but also con­tin­ue to insist on the removal of employ­ment secu­ri­ty that would result in wharfies hav­ing no guar­an­teed days off, no pro­tec­tion against casu­al­i­sa­tion and a pack­age that would sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce their pay.

“The Port today tabled an agree­ment that only con­tained three changes from their posi­tion in Decem­ber that lead to the con­tract­ing out pro­pos­al,” Gar­ry Parsloe said.

“The changes today include a guar­an­tee for full timers of 160 hours work per month and 96 hours for part timers and it includes a pro­vi­sion to vary hours with 24 hours notice and can­cel shifts with 8 hours notice.  Apart from that noth­ing else has changed.”

“Despite the union offer­ing a range of sig­nif­i­cant pro­pos­als to change the cur­rent agree­ment, the Port con­tin­ues to insist on a whole new agree­ment which removes basic secu­ri­ty.”

Gar­ry Parsloe said Port pro­pos­als would see the lack of any guar­an­teed week­ends off, where cur­rent­ly work­ers have one week­end off in three; no lim­its on the employ­ment and util­i­sa­tion of casu­al staff and a pro­pos­al to pay casu­al work­ers up to $10 per hour less than per­ma­nent staff; the removal of enti­tle­ment to reha­bil­i­ta­tion when injured; the removal of 5 days leave for work­ers to spend with a part­ner after the birth of a new baby; and a num­ber of oth­er changes which will sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce pay and con­di­tions.

“When chal­lenged today about whether or not the pro­pos­al by the Port to increase pay by 10% is more than off­set by the cuts in pay and con­di­tions in oth­er areas and in addi­tion to a com­plete removal of employ­ment secu­ri­ty, the Port could not respond.”

“The company’s offer to have a non bind­ing, yet to be devel­oped code of prac­tice around some addi­tion­al issues that would be devel­oped by Port man­age­ment over the next few months post set­tle­ment, is sim­ply unac­cept­able and unjus­ti­fied,” Gar­ry Parsloe said.

Medi­a­tion is con­tin­u­ing and will pro­ceed to facil­i­ta­tion if need­ed.

The Mar­itime Union is com­mit­ted to achiev­ing a set­tle­ment and intends to con­tin­ue to use the next two days to try to do that, Gar­ry Parsloe said.