Holiday over: Port boss on deck
Lyttelton Port Company chief executive Peter Davie has returned from his overseas trip but says he was closely in touch with all aspects of negotiations with striking Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) members.
Work at the port resumed yesterday although some ships were still standing out to sea waiting to unload after a five-day stoppage.
Union members have taken a ballot approving further action but have yet to legally notify a new strike to allow all parties to ‘‘take a breather’’, union organiser John Kerr said.
While this guaranteed the port would remain open until April 6, business and civil leaders were increasingly concerned and have been discussing ways of helping to broker an agreement as higher freight costs cut profits.
Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leanne Watson said there had been discussions about how this might happen.
‘‘We’re waiting to hear back from the port company. Losses are starting to incur extra costs for businesses,’’ Watson said.
She also condemned a union leaflet drop in the neighbourhoods of directors as an abuse of privacy because it revealed their names and home addresses.
Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said he was willing to assist with any negotiations but had not been invited at this stage.
Dialogue was always the best way forward, but union members had become frustrated, he said.
Davie’s return from Europe, where he was photographed skiing, was greeted by welcoming signs from the union on a lamppost near his home.
In last week’s leaflet drop the port directors were identified with their names and addresses, and an explanation of the arguments under dispute.
The leaflet drop prompted condemnation from business groups including the Institute of Directors (IoD), which has lobbied the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment since 2016 to keep director details confidential on the Companies Office register.
Directors and their families could be at risk from customers, staff, and other stakeholders going to their residential addresses, and could be targets for industrial espionage and cybercrime in their homes, IoD said.
Kerr said directors were paid handsomely and loss of privacy was sometimes the cost of that.
Wagstaff said transparency and accountability were paramount and companies should not be run anonymously.
The costs to the port company of the continuing disruption are difficult to quantity but may be more than $1 million a week when unloading stops.
Davie may also end up out of pocket. His annual pay is made up of a fixed remuneration, a shortterm incentive, and a long-term incentive. The short term incentive is assessed by the board against health and safety, operations, financial performance and leadership.
The short-term incentive is set at a maximum of 40 per cent of the fixed remuneration. Last year he earned $955,000 and was forecast to earn $961,000 in 2018.
Meanwhile, Davie reiterated that RMTU members must accept flexible rosters that the other main port union had accepted if they wanted pay parity.
But Kerr said the rosters the port company had tried to implement had been unworkable for the Maritime Union, and a fatigue policy was needed before any agreement.
Orr accepts jobs mandate
The Reserve Bank will be required to consider how it can maximise employment when it sets interest rates. Adrian Orr, who becomes governor of the Reserve Bank today, signed the new policy targets agreement with Finance Minister Grant Robertson in the Beehive yesterday. As widely flagged, the agreement requires the central bank to consider not only inflation when considering the ideal level of the official cash rate (OCR). ‘‘The Government expects monetary policy to be directed at achieving and maintaining stability in the general level of prices over the medium term and supporting maximum sustainable employment.’’ Robertson also maintained that outside figures will make up three members of a new codified seven-member committee that will make OCR decisions. Treasury officials will sit in on meetings, but will not be able to vote.
Banks’ combined profits rise
New Zealand banks’ earnings rose in the December quarter, new KPMG data shows. A quarterly analysis shows banks’ combined profit lifted
1.56 per cent to $1.4 billion in the three months to the end of December. Their profit jumped 15.98 per cent in the September quarter. They made a record combined $5.19b over the full year ended December
2017. Non-interest income, such as from customers’ fees, drove the profit lift – up $120 million or 15.76 per cent from the previous quarter. Operating expenses increased $55.7m and impaired asset expenses lifted 70 per cent, although ASB and Westpac bore the brunt of that. Decreases were reported by Kiwibank and BNZ.
AMP begins CEO search
Australia’s biggest wealth manager AMP is looking for a new chief executive after Craig Meller announced yesterday that he would retire at the end of the year. Australian-based Meller has been with the company for 17 years and at the helm for five. AMP said it would look widely for his replacement and consider internal candidates. ‘‘Craig has led the transformation of AMP over the past five years,’’ AMP chairman Catherine Brenner said in a statement. AMP’s New Zealand operations are led by group executive Jack Regan and managing director Blair Vernon.