Australian Financial Review Jan 20, 1999 http://www.afr.com.au/content/990120/news/news4.html Patrick's new year's resolution: sue MUA By Nina Field Patrick Stevedores will take punitive action in the Federal Court against the Maritime Union of Australia after union members defied an Australian Industrial Relations Commission order to work on New Year's Eve. Signalling a tougher stance on the MUA's interpretation of enterprise agreements, Patrick yesterday said it would take the union to court to enforce fines of up to $10,000 for each breach of the Workplace Relations Act. Patrick will ask the Federal Court to impose financial penalties on the MUA for defiance of the commission's orders, breaching its enterprise agreement and taking illegal industrial action during the lifetime of an enterprise agreement. On December 31, ships and trucks at Patrick container ports suffered delays of around half a day after workers at eight ports staged a mass no-show in defiance of management instructions and orders granted to Patrick by the AIRC. Patrick claimed the action cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the union argued it did not direct workers to stay at home and claimed the company was trying to gain an unfair advantage over its competitors by forcing employees to work on a traditional closed-port day. The stevedore company revealed yesterday it had statements from a number of the rostered employees who said they were encouraged not to work by MUA officials. It also claimed union representatives were present at several ports to turn workers away. Patrick argued these were clear breaches of the "letter and spirit" of enterprise agreements entered into in September last year by the MUA, which guaranteed a supply of labour at all times, including holidays. "The undeniable fact is the union signed an agreement to work New Year's Eve and then reneged," a Patrick spokesperson said. "While the financial penalties would not be onerous to an organisation of the size of the MUA, they would serve to remind the union that it must stick to its agreements." In separate Federal Court action, Patrick planned to enforce fines over three incidents at the Darling Harbour port in Sydney when the union "instructed employees not to work the new 12-hour shift provision of the enterprise agreements". MUA officials yesterday refused to comment on the moves by Patrick to crack down on MUA tactics, for legal reasons, but said the union would defend the Federal Court action. c This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
