Port jobs warning as plan rejected

Otago port workers are disappointed with their employer's announcement that it may cut up to 35 stevedoring jobs at Port Chalmers.

Maritime Union national president Phil Adams said last night the workers had rejected increasing demands for stevedores to switch to "vessel operations teams".

At present, workers handle cargo work on the basis of an eight-hour day with overtime, but Mr Adams said traffic through the port could be patchy, with big container ships regularly arriving at the end of the week and requiring up to 36 hours' work.

Maritime Union members and Rail and Maritime Transport Union workers voted last month to reject restructuring proposals from the port company because they would erode conditions or safety, or lead to redundancies.

But Mr Adams said that when workers initially agreed last week to a company proposal for some workers to be transferred to vessel teams, the management came back and increased by 10 the number of workers it wanted under the new deal.

That escalation had resulted in the whole arrangement being rejected, and Mr Adams said the workers' trust was being eroded.

"There appears to be a new aggressive attitude among management which has nearly destroyed a previously good working relationship," he said.

There had been about six rounds of redundancies since 1989, but almost no industrial stoppages over the past decade.

The workers' existing agreement did not expire until July next year.

Port Otago said a review of its "labour provision model" might mean up to 35 people would lose their jobs after a marked deterioration in cargo volumes.

Most of the jobs expected to be axed were those of frontline stevedores, said port chief executive Geoff Plunket.

The port employed 320 people, 180 of them in its stevedoring business, and Mr Plunket said job cuts were a necessary response to economic conditions and a downturn in numbers of ships and containers passing through the port.

Two shipping lines had consolidated their calls and, overall, the port had lost about 15 per cent of its cargo traffic.

"The combined effect of shipping line consolidation, supply chain changes by major exporters and a downturn in the global economy is being felt across the sector," he said.

The company had consulted unions in an effort to minimise the job losses, but hadn't been able to negotiate a more flexible workforce structure, which left it with no option but redundancies, for the first time since the mid-1990s.

"The rigid structure of our frontline workforce is not sustainable," Mr Plunket said.

Results of the review would be announced before Christmas.

- NZPA