Australia (Commonwealth Union) _ Australia is just one day and a half away from shuttering several of its most significant ports, and there are urgent negotiations taking place to prevent a supply chain crisis brought on by tense relations between seagoing employees and the country’s largest towage operator. A minister in the Anthony Albanese-led government today called Svitzer’s move to lockout over 600 workers at 17 ports starting this Friday “economic vandalism.”
The towage operator, which operates 100 vessels in Australian waters, has been the target of many crew strikes over the past three years as it attempts to update its compensation structure. Svitzer, a division of AP Moller-Maersk in Denmark, declared on Monday that it will lock out employees from three unions since the recent industrial strikes had gotten harsher. As a result of its decision to intervene, Australia’s Fair Work Commission held a brief hearing on Wednesday and scheduled the hearing before the full bench in Sydney for the following day. If required, a second hearing will be held on Friday morning.
If “the indefinite lockout of employees is protected industrial action for a proposed enterprise agreement that is threatened, pending or probable,” the commission will take that into consideration. The threat of an ongoing lockout, according to the commission, “has the potential to cause significant damage to the Australian economy.”
Minister for Workplace Relations Tony Burke has pleaded with Svitzer to delay locking out its employees until new legislation governing industrial disputes arbitration are in place. Burke stated earlier this week that he anticipated the government’s industrial relations law will be in place within three weeks and would grant the Fair Work Commission the authority to arbitrate “intractable” conflicts. Burke charged the Danish company with playing “a game of blackmail with the Australian economy” at today’s National Press Club. “They have decided to act now in a way that puts a whole lot of the Australian economy at risk, not just their own workplace,” Burke said.
