A number of significant developments occurred last week in the fight against unlawful industrial activities paralysing productivity in Australia’s maritime and ports industries.

In a significant ruling widely viewed as a major deterrent to illegal strikes, the Federal Court last Monday (30 November) ordered the Maritime Union of Australia pay $2.2 million in fines ($1.85 million in compensation to Qube and $364,725 to Patrick) for work bans that shut down Port Botany from late April to early May 2017.

The union must also pay $30,000 in penalties and its Sydney branch leaders about $12,500 in individual fines.

AREEA Chief Executive Steve Knott told the Australian Financial Review “this is a very significant penalty that should see members of the maritime union asking serious questions of their elected officials”.

“It is membership dues that will pay this significant fine – funds that could be directed towards lawfully advancing the interests of the union’s members,” he said.

“If an employer organisation copped a $2.2 million penalty for breaking the law, its leaders would not only be answering members’ questions but most likely be looking for other jobs.”

Mr Knott said poor productivity and lawbreaking was “spiralling out of control”.

“Nobody wants to see another major waterfront dispute like 1998, but that’s the trajectory we appear to be on,” he said.

“At the end of the day users of Australia’s ports – primary industries, small business, mum and dad households – will get fed up with the inefficiency and this will reach breaking point.”

Prime Minister steps up to wharfies

One day after the fines were handed down by the Federal Court, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made strong statements that the Government will not allow the MUA to hold Australia’s ports to ransom through outdated and uncompetitive IR practices.

“… Our Government is also keeping a close watch on the potential for industrial action to disrupt economic activity, noting that industrial action at Patrick Terminals is on hold until at least the 10th of December,” he said.

“We encourage the parties to this dispute to negotiate in good faith and to resolve their issues to get this sorted.

“But at the same time, I want to assure you that our Government will take action, if needed, to protect the Australian economy from serious harm.”

Following the Prime Minister’s comments, MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin was asked by Sunrise last Thursday whether there would be more industrial action before Christmas, to which he replied “no, of course not”.

The Prime Minister also flagged efficient operation of ports as critical to the economic recovery, foreshadowing longer-term, substantive legislative change.

He admitted productivity challenges remain in Australia’s maritime logistics system, relating to competition, industrial relations, infrastructure constraints and technology uptake.

“… Shortly the Treasurer will be releasing the terms of reference for a Productivity Commission enquiry into the efficiency of our maritime logistics system. This is not an enquiry that I see going on for a long time. I want to see this back here by the middle of the year.”

Referencing the recent Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Container Monitoring Report, the Prime Minister declared the Government is also examining broader issues associated with the relative productivity of Australian ports.

“Ports are the gateway for our economy. Inefficient ports are a tax on all of us,” he said.

The ACCC study last month highlighted even before the pandemic disruption, Australian container ports were relatively inefficient and well below international best practice, with the level of lawlessness at Australian ports at unsustainable levels.

Concerningly, Australia’s largest container ports, Melbourne and Sydney, ranked in the bottom 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, of the 351 global ports in the study.

ACCC Chair Rod Sims said “industrial action on top of pre-existing congestion has unfortunately put enormous strain on our international container ports at a time when they can least cope with it… the delays make using the port commercially unviable”.

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