THE DARWIN Port community is inching closer to industrial action as workers prepare to strike this Friday.
Three unions have notified Darwin Port management protected action will commence at 0600 on 19 August, unless a new employment agreement is reached.
The industrial dispute was set in motion last month when the Maritime Union of Australia, the Australian Maritime Officers Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union accused Darwin Port of seeking to cut its workers’ pay under a new employment agreement.
The wage dispute has since escalated to the Fair Work Commission. FWC proceedings commenced on 26 July at a conciliation conference heard by Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan.
A second conciliation conference scheduled for 5 August was postponed until 29 August, reportedly due to an illness on the employer’s side.
In a statement on Friday, Darwin Port acting CEO Peter Dummett suggested the unions had used the interim period to threaten legal action against the port and organise “unnecessary protected industrial action”.
But AMOU Northern Territory organiser Tracey Ellis said in a statement on Tuesday (16 August) the union “has always been open to further discussions” and hopes for a resolution as soon as possible.
AMOU’s members at Darwin Port include pilots and pilot launch masters, as well as workers across harbour control and administration roles.
All AMOU members covered by the disputed employment agreement voted to take action from Friday.
Ms Ellis said all unions agreed to attend the conciliation conference (postponed) in a bid to resolve outstanding issues.
“The outstanding issues include employees not being replaced when their employment ends, leaving those left behind overworked and continuously under pressure, and shore-based crew filling in on the pilot vessels and earning the same as a master, while being inexperienced,” Ms Ellis said.
“Darwin Port want to grandfather allowances so new employees can’t receive them and there is also obviously the big elephant in the room, CPI being through the roof and the employer unwilling to bring the wages up to compensate.
“Darwin Port has a revised offer, but they have refused to table it and are blaming the unions for the delay.”
Ms Ellis said that, unless an agreement is reached by Friday, AMOU members at Darwin Port will stop work for an hour at 1300 each day between 19 and 26 August, alongside members of the MUA and AMWU.
Beyond planned work stoppages, AMOU members will refuse to carry out non-rostered overtime work or fill in other job roles, indefinitely.
“The overtime ban has the potential to cripple the port because they are running so lean on employees and have been expecting the remaining ones to pick up the pieces,” Ms Ellis said.
“The results of the protected action ballot shows that employees are no longer willing to sticky tape the issues.
“Darwin Port needs to fix the problem properly by replacing the missing employees and writing minimum crewing levels into the agreement.”
Darwin Port declined to comment further but reiterated its message to the unions on Friday, which strongly encouraged the unions to return as soon as possible to the conciliation conferences to avoid industrial action.
