EMPLOYMENT and workplace relations minister Tony Burke has criticised Svitzer Australia for attempting to terminate its enterprise agreement with unions representing the company’s tug workers.

The termination hearing was scheduled to take place on Monday this week. It was pushed back after the Maritime Union of Australia, the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and the Australian Maritime Officers Union obtained a four-month adjournment.

The delay has been perceived as a window of opportunity for the government to change the fair work laws that make the termination possible.

“I think, and we’ll all have different views as to what are the reasons, but it’s a fair conclusion no matter who you talk to that our bargaining system is broken,” Mr Burke said in an address to the Australian Industry Group in Canberra on Monday this week.

He said he was becoming “increasingly concerned” about the ability of a business to unilaterally cuts workers’ pay and conditions by terminating agreements.

“My starting point on face value is I cannot see how the tactic can be justified,” he said.

“The solution to a decade of wage stagnation cannot include a loophole which instead of stagnation causes wages to go backwards.

“One of the disputes currently before the commission is under these very provisions where Svitzer is seeking to terminate an agreement covering its tugboat operators across Australian ports.”

Mr Burke said successful termination of the agreement could result in pay cuts of at least 40%. According to the unions, the wage reduction would have amounted to 47%.

He noted the tug workers potentially facing pay cuts are the same workers who appeared in the news for their efforts to prevent Portland Bay from grounding in July.

“They were putting their lives on the line to save a bulk carrier and its crew that was stranded off the coast of Sydney after a cable had snapped. They were treacherous images.

“The New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet described the work of these crews as heroic and incredibly impressive. And rightly so.”

According to Mr Burke, regardless of whether workers appear in the news for doing their job, a tactic that allows for 40% pay cuts is neither fair nor in the national interest.

“As someone whose job is to determine whether the workplace relations framework is fit for purpose, I see this as a way to get out of freely bargained obligations, something we would not accept in the world of commercial or consumer contracts.

“It’s more than a loophole; it’s a rort. And I’m disgusted that it’s even being tried.”

On Friday, Svitzer suggested the unions were insisting on conditions negotiated two decades ago, which were no longer fit for modern towage operations.

“All we want is to remove restrictions which are costly and unproductive to ensure that we can compete now and in the future and lift productivity,” a Svitzer spokesperson said in Friday’s statement.

Mr Burke said there may be room for narrow exceptions where a business is facing imminent collapse and agreement terminations may ensure affected workers can remain employed.

However, he noted he was not interested in simple permission for unilateral termination and wage cuts.

“We want the Fair Work Commission to facilitate bargaining and to help parties make agreements, not spend its time terminating agreements against the wishes of the workforce. We want bargaining to happen in good faith.”

Mr Burke said discussions at the Jobs and Skills Summit would consider a “different kind of solution” to industrial issues, rather than unilateral action.

The Jobs and Skills Summit is set to take place at Parliament House, Canberra from 1 September until 2 September.