Negotiations related to the suspended lockout last year continue between three Australian labour unions and tugboat operator Svitzer AU. However, Shipping Watch reported that the talks had reached a critical point.
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) is now pushing for the owners and management of the company - Svitzer and Maersk- to get involved. In a tweet and on its website, the MUA urged users to sign an open letter to the CEOs of Svitzer and Maersk, calling Svitzer a "global disgrace".
"Companies like Svitzer are driving a race to the bottom in the tug sector. We know that tug workers and their families are paying the price of aggressive employer tactics like Svitzer's," said the union on its website. To date, 1576 of the targeted 2000 signatures have been collected.
In response to the statements, Svitzer said it would continue negotiating "honestly and in good faith." It also said it had made a written commitment to the Fair Work Commission in Australia to protect the salaries, superannuation (at 15.5 per cent) and core conditions.
" We continue to negotiate constructively with labour unions, with Australia's Fair Work Commission serving as intermediary. Even though there are still disagreement on a number of crucial points, it is still our goal to find a solution via the negotiation path," said Svitzer to ShippingWatch.
The parties were given until mid-May to come to an agreement.
In November last year, the Maersk-owned company issued a lockout notice to 600 port towage employees, preventing them from attending work. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) intervened after concluding the lockout would bring 17 Australian ports to a grinding halt.
Negotiations between Svitzer Australia and the unions have been ongoing for three years. According to Svitzer, "the step was taken in response to industrial action, which has made it difficult for it to run its operations." Svitzer claimed that the industrial action its employees took cost the company more than 2,000 hours of work stoppage since 20 October 2022.
