The tug boat drama playing out this week in Australian ports and the Fair Work Commission has had a long, difficult gestation that has hobbled the efficient operation of the ports over decades.Industrial Relations Minister Peter Reith, who so spectacularly challenged the power of the always militant Maritime Union of Australia back in the 1990s.
Those reports criticise the extensive reach and restrictions regularly included in the particularly protracted process of enterprise bargaining at the ports. In that sense, Svitzer’s notice of a Friday deadline for a lockout of its workers was a deliberate if Svitzer gambled the commission will follow the process of ordering 21 days of talks – but critically terminate rather than merely suspend any industrial action by either side. With no agreement likely in that time, the commission would then have to make a workplace determination “as quickly as possible”.Workplace Minister Tony Burke is still putting all the blame for the showdown on the employer, Svitzer, as he once again spruiks the need for the government’s industrial relations bill.
Because the commission has interpreted this strictly to mean “exceptional”, the threat to lock out hundreds of employees across key ports is a means of triggering what is effectively enforced arbitration. Maintenance, for example, usually can’t be done on weekends, public holidays and outside daytime hours, even when people are at work and available.