Crew aboard the Smit Lamnalco-owned emergency tow vessel Reef Keeper have commenced protected industrial action after bargaining for a new enterprise agreement reportedly floundered.

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) reported that industrial action commenced yesterday morning (18 December) which it says could last for a period of up to 10 days.

Reef Keeper was reportedly recently chartered by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) to provide standby support and crisis recovery services to vessels traversing the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, in order to assist vessels in the event of becoming adrift or taking on water near the reef.

The vessel is also used to perform maintenance on navigational aids throughout the waters between the Torres Strait and Cairns. 

The MUA claims vessel owner Smit Lamnalco, which commenced active operations for Reef Keeper on 1 July this year, is attempting to remove conditions of both employment and shipboard living, which the union is “fighting to retain”.

Some of the conditions the MUA claims Smit Lamnalco is trying to remove include converting the current 8-hour shift into a 12-hour shift with no additional wages, cutting the crews’ Income Protection insurance policy payments, removal of all EBA allowances, and removal of shipboard television and WiFi connections.

Speaking to DCN, a Smit Lamnalco spokesperson said, “We matched the previous operator’s salary, superannuation and travel provisions and continue to negotiate in good faith for the rest”.

“Our most recent offer to the MUA included income protection insurance policy payments, and a core 8-hour day, subject to vessel operational requirements, which is similar to what was in place with the previous operator.

“Our wage offer is based around a combination of CPI (Consumer Price Index) and WPI (Wage Price Index). Given that WPI is currently significantly higher than CPI, this means our proposed annual wage offers are higher than they would be if we were using CPI only.

“Regarding television and WiFi, we have an internet connection for the crew on board, and have smart TVs on board which can connect to the WiFi.”

The Reef Keeper contract, which the MUA claims to be worth $190 million over its ten year life, is issued to provide a support vessel for if one of the hundreds of mostly international-flagged vessels transiting the Great Barrier Reef has an incident or requires assistance.

The MUA’s Queensland branch’s assistant branch secretary, Dave Lyon said “The company has put us in a position where we have no choice but to take industrial action, because our efforts at good faith bargaining have been sunk by Smit Lamnalco’s managers”.

“The Barrier Reef and our northern waters are being put in danger by this multinational company’s race to the bottom on wages, safety, fatigue management and crew living standards.”

The MUA also claimed Smit Lamnalco removed EBA allowances for crew “living in appalling conditions where there is diesel fumes in crews’ cabins, crew living in sea containers on the rear deck, sewage backing up into the shared shower cubicles and excessively loud machinery noise”.

A Smit Lamnalco spokesperson responded to that claim, stating “the vessel quarters are MLC compliant and Lloyds Register have undertaken an audit yesterday and there was no adverse finding regarding the fumes and sewage, as steps had been taken to address those. Allowance claims are subject to ongoing negotiation”.

An AMSA spokesperson spoke to DCN, commenting, “Smit Lamnalco is under contract to AMSA to provide a level 1 emergency towage capability and to support the performance of outage response and maintenance on our aids to navigation”.

“This capability may also be tasked to assist with search and rescue in its operating region.

“We have received assurances that the protected industrial action will not endanger lives or personal safety, and that the crew will respond to emergencies.

“AMSA expects all parties to work together to respond to any incidents in the usual way, but resolution of this action is a matter between Smit Lamnalco and the union representing its employees.”

A Smit Lamnalco spokesperson said the company is “committed to working collaboratively with all parties to achieve a resolution”.