ILWU VP Ray Familathe with MUNZ President Garry Parsloe, March 2012. Photo by Dawn Des Brisay, ILWU Local 40 President.
Ports of Auckland has agreed to pay some of its unionised workers a week’s wages before a planned lockout on April 6.
An Employment Court judge today heard the company’s “good faith” pledge to pay all Maritime Union of New Zealand workers who would have worked “guaranteed shifts” between 3pm last Thursday and 3pm next Friday.
However, casual workers belonging to the union are not included because the port is not busy and would not usually call upon them to work, the company’s lawyer said.
Workers entitled to the payments will be asked to gather at an as yet un-named location to collect their money on Thursday.
The employees are not currently working although the Ports of Auckland denies locking them out, saying there is simply not enough work at the port for them.
The port company is continuing to argue for its right to lock out workers, including from April 6.
While the two sides wait for a May 16 substantive hearing on the legality of the Port’s dismissal of nearly 300 workers, Judge Barry Travis has passed interim orders requiring Ports of Auckland to take no further steps to dismiss the workers or make them redundant.
The judge’s interim orders instruct the company not make any statement which could “encourage or entice” workers to seek employment with outside contractors, and to ensure stevedoring contractors Drake and Allied Workforce do not advertise port jobs or recruit union workers.
The two sides will meet again on Friday in the Employment Court to argue over whether the April 6 lockout is legal and whether Ports of Auckland can offer voluntary redundancy to the workers.
The judge has issued an injunction against the company offering voluntary redundancy until that hearing.