In a stunning rebuke of DP World, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has accused the port operator of waging a media campaign against the Maritime Union, rather than focusing its efforts on negotiating a new workplace deal with its workers.
Since October, a dispute between the union and Australia’s second largest port operator, DP World, which runs container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle, has escalated to become the most significant strike on the nation’s ports in decades.
Led by the Maritime Union of Australia, the protected industrial action has included 24 hour strikes and work stoppages, causing a backlog of some 45,000 containers across the four terminals and threatening to exacerbate the cost of living crunch.
Speaking after a meeting with the company and the union on Thursday, Mr Burke accused DP World of failing to act in good faith in bargaining negotiations on a new enterprise agreement.
“I have made clear to the company as well, if they had invested as much into negotiating as they have into their media campaign, they may already have an agreement that it is in the interest of everybody,” Mr Burke told reporters in Sydney.
Mr Burke also emphatically rejected calls by the operator to intervene in the dispute and request that the Fair Work Commission order mandatory arbitration between the parties.
“The concept that every other business in Australia is expected to negotiate with their workforce, [DP World] wants to rely on ministerial intervention – [that] is not a view that impresses me,” he said.
“I think certainly their presumption that they would find a political answer, rather than do what every other business in Australia is expected to do was misguided, and I’ve made that clear to them.”
While DP World is seeking to update its rostering arrangement in a bid to reflect current business demands, the union is frustrated that the company’s stevedores receive significantly less than at its competitor, Patrick Terminals, and is seeking a 16 per cent pay hike over two years.
Responding to the union’s pay request, Mr Burke said Australians were “sick to death of having highly profitable companies say everything is the fault of them having to pay their workforce the same as their competitors.”
Asked about the effect of the escalating industrial action on Australian consumers and the broader economy, Mr Burke slammed DP World and its Oceania executive vice president Nicolaj Noes over its appeals that intervention was needed to avoid higher prices.
“I have trouble believing that DP World has the interests of Australian consumers at heart when it is being run by the same person who previously, when he was the CEO of Switzer, made the announcement that he was effectively going to shut down every single major port in Australia.”
As managing director at tugboat operator Svitzer, Mr Noes last year moved to lock out 582 striking workers in an escalation of a separate bargaining dispute.
The Prime Minister on Thursday morning also reiterated that the two parties needed to reach an agreement.
“We think that there are mutual interests between workers and their employers,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Melbourne.
“We’d urge the parties to bargain in good faith and to have a resolution that is in their interest, but also the interests of our national economy.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton called on the Albanese government to “stand up” to the union.
“It seems that Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese are completely owned and operated by these unions, and in that circumstance … it’s the Australian public that miss out,” he said.
DP World has been contacted for comment.
