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Sydney workers fired by Hutchison Ports via email a week ago have returned to work following an interim court injunction ruling that they cannot be sacked.
About 100 workers in Brisbane and Sydney were celebrating Thursday night’s last-minute Federal Court win by the Maritime Union of Australia, which argued Hutchison Ports failed in its responsibilities over the sackings.
The court accepted the union’s argument that Hutchison had breached its enterprise agreement by failing to adequately consult with workers and ignoring a dispute resolution clause before announcing the forced redundancies.
However, addressing the sacked workers at Port Botany on Friday before they started their first shift since beginning a blockade seven days ago, MUA Sydney branch secretary Paul McAleer cautioned it was only a temporary win.
“We won last night but it wasn’t a victory for the war that we’re in the moment because this is going to go on for some time,” he said.
Justice Darryl Rangiah on Thursday agreed to grant a temporary order that would remain in place until a full hearing in September.
MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said the staff just wanted to get back to work in what’s become a “highly dysfunctional and adversarial situation”.
“You can see this is what happens when you open up a can of emotion and have a bit of whoop-ass on your workers and people respond,” Mr Crumlin said.