Auckland port ushers in industry-first new pay structure for stevedores

Ports of Auckland is New Zealand's main imports gateway. Photo / Michael Craig

“Uncertainties” over Auckland port’s future and the cost of living squeeze have prompted the council-owned port company and the Maritime Union to bring in an industry-first pay structure for stevedores.

Stevedores, who unload and load ships, will move to a salaried income.

Union spokesman Russell Mayn said the new collective deal will provide stability for stevedores’ families at a time the cost of living is pinching, and that it’s an opportune time for the agreement “given the uncertainties surrounding the future of the port”.

“The introduction of dynamic rostering will be a game changer for a work-life balance for stevedores going forward. For the port of Auckland and its Maritime Union members this will be the first salaried contact.”

The extension of the current collective agreement to 2024 would provide stability for the port and its shareholder, Mayn said in a joint port company/ union statement.

The extra year’s extension would include an increase of pay in line with the consumer price index with an upper limit. It also included 40-hour salaries for stevedores.

Port chief executive Roger Gray said the change would provide pay certainty for stevedores.

The agreement would give them the ability to budget, plan and work with banks on securing financial support for purchases such as first homes, he said.

“This is just the start,” the statement said.

“The port and [the union] will continue working together using their new high engagement model on a new stevedore rostering system to be implemented next year.”

The new roster system would give the port assurance it had the resources to meet shipping needs while giving stevedores more say in the shifts they worked, supporting a better work-life balance.

The new pay structure appears to support a claimed better relationship between the port company and the Maritime Union following the appointment of Gray as chief executive earlier this year.

The port has been in the headlines in recent years over serious worker health and safety problems, including fatalities, concerns about its poor productivity during pandemic-fuelled shipping and supply chain congestion, and weak financial performance and dividend returns to ratepayers. (The company’s decision after Gray’s appointment to call time on a failed six-year-long venture to introduce automation at the container terminal heaped more public scorn on the beleaguered imports gateway. The decision resulted in a $60 million write-off, mostly for software. However, industry observers believe the eventual cost of the project’s failure will be much higher.)

The controversies resulted in former mayor Phil Goff pushing through a largely new board of directors last year, which in turn appointed Gray to succeed former chief executive Tony Gibson, who quit suddenly last year.

With container shipping processing improving this year and a commitment from directors to significantly lift the annual dividend to the city from this financial year, the port appeared to be turning a corner.

However, the election of Wayne Brown as Auckland’s new mayor has rekindled debate over the future location of the port, a strategic piece of New Zealand supply chain infrastructure.

Brown campaigned on giving port land back to Aucklanders by getting rid of its CBD waterfront vehicle import operation and promising a focus on its location as regards its cargo operation future.