Operator says dispute costing $84m a week
DP World Australia believes its ongoing dispute with its stevedores over wages and rostering has so far cost the nation more than $84m a week due to delays loading and unloading containers from ships.
And it wants the federal government to step in and arbitrate a solution.
Australia’s second biggest ports operator said the ongoing industrial action had stalled about 44,000 containers, and a backlog was likely to take between two and eight weeks to clear.
It has commissioned a report, to be released Monday, which shows the industrial action has cost $1.34bn since it began in October last year.
DP World Oceania executive vice-president Nicolaj Noes said he would like Prime
Minister Anthony Albanese or Industrial Relations Tony Burke to ask the Fair Work Commission to step in and force mandatory arbitration.
“That would be our recommendation, that Minister Burke or Mr Albanese pick up the phone to the Fair Work Commission and say ‘guys, you have got to bring these people to the table and stop the industrial action’ and come up with an outcome now that is fair for both parties,” Mr Noes said.
The port delays affect importers such as Coles, Woolworths, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and others, while any companies which export would also be experiencing disruption.
DP World said meat exports alone were worth $18.7bn annually and relied on just-intime supply chains which have been significantly affected impacted by the work bans and stoppages imposed by the Maritime Union of Australia.
In response to the continued industrial action, shipping lines are prioritising loaded containers, leaving thousands of empties stranded. Rising queues are costing transporters millions of dollars to store and shift empty boxes.
The MUA has been taking industrial action at DP World’s ports for four months and the FWC does not generally intervene until action has been taking place for more than nine months.
Mr Noes said he was “comfortable” the FWC would find in DP World’s favour through forced arbitration.
“We are comfortable with what we are asking for. We would get an outcome that would be acceptable for us. And at this stage, it doesn’t seem like there will be an outcome that is acceptable for them – so they do not agree to that arbitration.”
However MUA national assistant secretary Adrian Evans rejected claims the industrial action was costing that much.
“That’s just simply not right,” Mr Evans said. “The action we’re taking is measured. It causes some delays but as we saw through Covid there were shipping delays everywhere, but the economy boomed and inflation spiralled so it’s not costing anything like that.
“The whole idea of protected action is to cause the company to reach an agreement with us.”
DP World has a 40 per cent market share of the nation’s ports, just below Patrick Corp on 41 per cent.
Mr Evans said that DP World was currently paying staff on average 17 per cent less than Patrick.
As part of the negotiations the MUA wants a 27 per cent pay rise for certain types of stevedore contracts.
“This is about security, permanency and roster, respect and dignity in the workplace, safety, competitive wages and removal of ambiguity in the agreements,” Mr Evans said.
He said the government should stay out of the process at this stage.
“It’s a matter between an employer and its workforce,” Mr Evans said.
You have got to bring these people to the table and stop the industrial action
Nicolaj Noes DP World Oceania VP