Court prepares for port pay dispute case

THE bitter industrial dispute between the Ports of Auckland and the Maritime Union heads to the Employment Court today for a private conference before a full public hearing next Monday.

Ports of Auckland has agreed not to sack stevedores or engage contractors before this morning’s proceedings. The concession, which was confirmed by Judge Barry Travis on Thursday, avoided the need for interim injunctions, sought by the union, to stop the port from making re- dundancies before concerns could be court.

Months of industrial unrest on the waterfront came to a head on March 7, when the port announced it planned to axe 292 watersiders’ roles and use contracted labour.

The union is calling for the Employment Court to decide whether the planned dismissals are legal, given negotiations over a collective employment agreement. It claims the dismissals undermined the bargaining and amounted to an unlawful lockout.

A port spokeswoman the wharfies’ heard by the

said

it was confident about the process it had followed. ‘‘We’re just getting all our stuff together to meet with the judge ,’’ she said. ‘‘The port’s running, we’ve got ships coming in, they’re being serviced as usual so we’re all just getting on with work.’’

Thousands of people marched from Auckland’s waterfront in support of port workers on March 10. Prime Minister John Key waded into the dispute that day, saying he expected most of the port workers would be reemployed by the port as part of a casualised workforce.