Brief suspension of Industrial action at DP World terminals

The Maritime Union of Australia suspended industrial action at Australian DP World terminals on Tuesday. The 24-hour suspension was a result of a positive day of negotiations between the two parties at the Fair Work Commission.

MUA nation secretary, Adrian Evan said, “Yesterday’s negotiations were positive, so the MUA has suspended our Protected Industrial Action for 24 hours in good faith.

“We will be assessing each day and if there is movement, we will suspend for another 24 hours.

“We think we can reach agreement in principle over the six days of meetings but that is dependent on DP World’s preparedness to land a fair deal.”

The protected industrial action has been in motion since early October after negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement collapsed. On Monday (4th December), the union announced another round of industrial action until the 18th of December.

DP World has said that throughput volumes at its Australian terminals dropped by around 30-40% in the first few weeks of industrial action alone.

All four of DP World’s Australian terminals are affected by the action – Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney.

The action includes bans on working of certain vessels, multiple work stoppages schedules per day, bans on working on a vessel for eight hours after it is alongside, bans on the performance of overtime, shift extensions, loading or unloading trucks, bans of the performance of upgrades, amongst others.

A full list of the upcoming industrial action can be found in DP World’s most recent press release.

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