Qube Ports has been left humiliated at the Fair Work Commission this week by a decision handed down by Commissioner Riordan that their dismissal of six shift managers at their Fremantle Port terminal was unfair. Each of the six shift managers have been reinstated and the company has been ordered to pay them almost six months worth of back pay.
In September 2021, amidst lawful industrial action by Qube's stevedoring workforce, shift managers – whose primary responsibility is the management , allocation and resourcing of stevedores' work – were asked to cross the picket line and perform the substantive work of stevedoring employees, in contravention of their employment agreements and in contravention of a litany of safety standards and requirements.
In one meeting, the sacked workers were each asked to sign a document that they were not allowed to read, a document which they understood would indicate their willingness to work in contravention of basic safety standards at Fremantle Port.
In response to this demand, Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan was particularly scathing in his published decision, stating that:
I find that it is grossly unfair and unconscionable conduct to ask an employee to sign a document without giving the employee an opportunity to read the document first. I have never heard of an employer asking an employee to sign a document that they are not allowed to read. Conversely, I have never heard of an employer signing a document presented by an employee or a Union without reading it first. Such a proposition is simply ridiculous and belies the good reputation of a number of the Respondent's IR employees. The document, for example, could have required the employees to work for no remuneration or required the employees to resign from their employment in 6 months' time, etc. In my opinion, no employee with a modicum of common sense would sign a document that they were prohibited from first reading.
When the shift managers rightfully refused to sign that document or perform stevedores work, they were effectively sacked on the spot – stood down pending an investigation of their misconduct, and then sacked for failing to follow a "lawful or reasonable direction" from their employer.
The decision of the Fair Work Commission vindicates the principled and proper response of these shift managers.
Qube Managers' attempts to coerce, intimidate and manipulate their shift managers into performing unsafe work at Fremantle Port was not just unconscionable, it was also not lawful.
Stevedoring is a high-risk work performed in a high-risk environment, and is work that can only performed by people with the appropriate skills, training and relevant certificates of competence.
This hamfisted, inept and reckless corporate misconduct comes at a time when Qube management of Fremantle Port is already being hammered by complaints from clients who openly and enthusiastically canvass for alternative stevedoring providers at Fremantle.
Quotes attributable to Will Tracey, WA Branch Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia:
"This debacle proves that Qube's management are incompetent, reckless and unfit to operate a major stevedoring terminal in Western Australia. Instead of resorting to dangerous work practices, bullying and intimidation, Qube should have worked in good faith with their entire workforce on a solution to the dispute at Fremantle Port.
"This decision is a repudiation of middle management stupidity everywhere and is a real lesson for all corporations about the risks involved in allowing this kind of At-Any-Cost mentality to seep into your organisation.
"Instead of trying to threaten and intimidate the workforce, these bosses should listen when they are told by their own shift managers that something is unsafe or unreasonable, since it always costs more in the long run when you cut corners like this.
"There is no other company in this country that would allow a State Manager to illegally sack 6 out of 7 font line managers without first assessing the merits of such a hasty, illogical decision and the catastrophic effects on productivity at Qube's Fremantle operations. At any other company, proper governance procedures would see the State Manager terminated – but it's unlikely at Qube."
