JAMIE NEWLYN
ASSISTANT NATIONAL SECRETARY
08 November 2021
STATEMENT ON PATRICK TERMINALS' LATEST COURT ACTION
Once again, Patrick Terminals are acting with belligerence and bad faith in the courts rather than sitting down with their workforce and negotiating a new employment agreement that both sides can be happy with.
The action in the Fair Work Commission this evening, announced by embargoed media release, is another example of Patrick Terminals' disingenuous and disruptive approach to the bargaining process.
In today's Australian Financial Review, the Australian Farmers Federation CEO Tony Mahar wrote that industrial action was only a "sliver" of the overall impact on Australian shipping. The greater cause of delays and pricing pressure for Australian exporters and consumers of imported goods are the flow-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, shipping cartel price gouging and global economic circumstances beyond the control of an isolated and small population such as Australia's.
In this context, the cynical opportunism of Patrick Terminals in using a Section 424 application under the Fair Work Act to prevent wharfies from exercising their democratic rights in the workplace is an appalling abuse of process.
By the admission of Patrick's parent company in its recent annual report, business is booming. Volumes are up, profits are up and executive bonuses are flowing. This is not a business or an industry in distress. It must not be allowed to play the victim here or hijack the sympathies of the Australian community.
The true cause of delays at our Ports are myriad. Whether it is a lack of freight rail capacity to remove containers quickly enough from the quay line, the greater carrying capacity of larger container ships requiring lengthier berthing times, or the simple economic reality of skyrocketing demand for international freight, any attempt by Patrick Terminals to blame its own workforce for capacity constraints or price hikes should be treated with suspicion.
Loyal, hardworking wharfies and their families deserve fair pay, job security and safety at work but the endgame of Patrick Terminals appears to be casualisation, forced redundancies of permanent employees, and the abolition of vital minimum safety standards at our Ports.
Patrick Terminals learned the hard way almost 25 years ago that the Australian community is intolerant of this kind of corporate bullying of a loyal workforce, and the Union once again encourages Patrick Terminals to actually sit back down and engage in good faith with its workforce instead of seeking fresh conflict.
