Container Terminal Industrial Actions - Latest In the last few days, both DP World Australia (DPWA) and Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) have announced that protected industrial actions by the Maritime Union of Australia (division of the CFMMEU) will ramp up from this week. DPWA has announced that the MUA has amended its notice of Protected Industrial Action (PIA) at DPWA Terminals, encompassing work restrictions and additional stoppages. The effect of the work restrictions varies across terminals and includes various bans on employees working in tasks above their normal grade, overtime, shift extensions, accepting late call-ins and ceasing advanced or delayed start times. The DPWA Customer Notice (11 August) can be downloaded: Here Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) has announced that there will be a 24hr stoppage at the HPA Sydney Terminal from 0600hr this Thursday, 13 August 2020. The notice is available on the HPA Portal at: https://www.hpaportal.com.au/HPAPB The industrial disruption comes hot on the heels of HPA announcing an increase in its Sydney Terminal landside Infrastructure Levy to $88.83 per full container (import & export) effective from 8 September - up from $63.11 (a 40.76% increase). In addition, the HPA infrastructure levy at its Brisbane Terminal increased on 27 July to $94.78 per full container - up from $50 per container - an increase of 89.56%! These are yet more examples of how these massive increases in fees imposed by the stevedores - well above CPI, even during a major pandemic - are completely disconnected from landside service levels. They are again a grab for revenue that the stevedores aren't willing to recover from their direct commercial clients, the shipping lines. Cynics among participants in the landside logistics chain are of the view that the stevedores don't even need to negotiate the best Enterprise Agreements possible with their employees aimed at boosting productivity and viability, because the stevedores can simply increase their unregulated landside terminal access / infrastructure charges imposed on road & rail operators with impunity to recover the added labour costs. Landside container logistics chain participants, from road & rail operators through to importers and exporters, are paying dearly for terminal access in a climate of falling container terminal productivity and industrial disputation. We also face the situation that the Enterprise Agreements for every major container stevedore company in Australia (except Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal in Adelaide) have expired, giving the MUA the lawful right to seek to undertake protected industrial action in pursuit of their EA logs of claims. See the CTAA analysis of the container stevedore terminal industrial landscape: Here |