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.