Ports of Auckland management decisions behind delays

The Mari­time Uni­on is ques­tion­ing the reas­ons provided for ongo­ing delays at the Ports of Auck­land.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says there is a need for an hon­est con­ver­sa­tion about what has gone wrong at the port.

He says COVID-19 cer­tainly had an impact on port oper­a­tions, but that was only half the pic­ture.

‘The pan­dem­ic brought pres­sure to bear on port oper­a­tions, and revealed pre-exist­ing weak­nesses in man­age­ment plan­ning.’

Mr Har­ris­on says three unre­solved issues are the fail­ure of the auto­ma­tion pro­ject and related labour sup­ply issues, the port’s fail­ures with health and safety, and fail­ure of seni­or man­age­ment and Board to get a handle on these two prob­lems.

He says POAL man­age­ment cut back on staff due to mis­placed over-con­fid­ence in auto­ma­tion, and they had been so des­per­ate to reduce their work­force they had been left short handed.

‘Togeth­er with the reli­ance on work­ers doing excess­ive hours, this has been a recipe for dis­aster.’

Mr Har­ris­on says it was ridicu­lous the port is now advert­ising for staff over­seas with the enorm­ous cost, delays and dif­fi­culties involved with quar­ant­ine, and the asso­ci­ated risks to the pop­u­la­tion of New Zea­l­and.

He says there had pre­vi­ously been trans­fer of skilled work­ers from oth­er New Zea­l­and ports into Auck­land dur­ing labour short­ages and he ques­tioned wheth­er this option had been fully explored.

In pre­vi­ous years, the Mari­time Uni­on helped facil­it­ate this and alle­vi­ate the issues facing the Port at the time, he says.

Mr Har­ris­on says the Ports of Auck­land was too import­ant to Auck­land and New Zea­l­and to con­tin­ue to wait for man­age­ment to deliv­er.

He says the recent resig­na­tion of the POAL Board Chair Liz Coutts was not unex­pec­ted.

In late 2020, Auck­land May­or Phil Goff had ordered a health and safety inquiry into the Coun­cil-owned Port com­pany and had declined to express con­fid­ence in Ports of Auck­land CEO Tony Gib­son.

Mr Har­ris­on says the res­ult of this this inquiry was due in early Feb­ru­ary.

He says that the new Board chair had to show an abil­ity to get New Zealand’s import hub back online and prove this was not just a case of rearran­ging the deck chairs.

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and rep­res­ents the major­ity of port work­ers at Ports of Auck­land.