>From The Australian, at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index.asp?URL=/national/4320429.htm P&O vows to slash dock jobs By SID MARRIS 14jan99 THE country's largest stevedore, P&O Ports, intends to slash its 1300-strong workforce by 40 per cent, threatening to overload the Howard Government's $250 million taxpayer-backed redundancy fund. The size of the cuts puts the foreign-owned company on a collision course with militant Maritime Union of Australia officials, who have warned of industrial action. After rival Patrick lost about $58 million in its spectacular bid to halve its workforce to 700, P&O has told the Howard Government it would like to cut its own staff to about 780. If successful, stevedoring levels will have been slashed from 10,000 in the 1980s to 3500 at the end of the Hawke government reforms, to just under 1500. The projected figures, kept under wraps by P&O, are likely to inflame MUA officials, who are at loggerheads internally over the future of the union. Declining membership is expected to reduce the numbers of union officials, with speculation as many as 10 may go. Industry sources said the union and P&O had reached a politically saleable compromise target of working "towards" one worker per piece of machinery. However, Transport Minister John Anderson told parliament last month the Government would not baulk from a December 31 deadline for companies to lay out their job cuts � prompting P&O to set the target. It is understood the figure has caused the Department of Transport to review its targets for the Government-backed redundancy fund, which provides $250 million to stevedores in return for an industry levy. P&O managing director Richard Hein would not confirm the figures, but conceded the company was suffering a cost disadvantage to Patrick. He said there was no comparison with Patrick's negotiation after its initial bid to replace its unionised workforce with farmer-backed non-union workers early last year. Mr Hein said P&O was not seeking the same level of outsourcing for maintenance and other non-core functions. MUA central Sydney branch secretary Jim Donovan said the Patrick experience had cast a shadow over the safety of the practice of one man per machine on a 12-hour shift, as conducted by Patrick. He said he was under "no illusions" there had to be change, but indicated the union would consider its options for industrial action as laid out by the Federal Government's law. "But if they think they want those sort of levels, they are in for a rude shock," he said. "If there is a reduction of labour, there has got to be, commensurate with that, conditions to make sure it doesn't harm in any way the health or wellbeing of the members." The Sydney branch has resisted changes introduced by Patrick, most recently refusing to work on New Year's Eve, despite an agreement signed in October.
