THE Maritime Union has reportedly given assurances not to organise or notify of any industrial action against Patrick Terminals before 1 December.
Moreover, the parties have agreed to meet for three days each week ahead of 1 December 2020 in an effort to settle on a new enterprise agreement.
In a statement, Patrick Terminals said that late last Friday, the MUA provided undertakings to the Fair Work Commission committing to not organise or notify any industrial action against Patrick Terminals before 1 December 2020.
“Given the commitment from the MUA to both withdraw their protected industrial action and make undertakings to not organise or notify any industrial action before 1 December 2020, Patrick Terminals’ has withdrawn its application from the FWC,” Patricks said in a statement.
“Our focus continues to be to clear the backlog of container cargo in Sydney and Melbourne as a result of the MUA industrial action and work towards resuming normal operations, prior to the possibility of further protected industrial action by the MUA after 1 December 2020.”
According to Patricks, their national operations centre has been working closely with shipping lines to implement plans to change rotations and reduce delays at terminals.
“We can confirm that our Brisbane and Fremantle Terminals are operating as normal,” Patricks stated.
“Delays in Melbourne have reduced to approximately 5 days. Delays in Sydney are also reducing as a result of shipping line customers removing the Sydney port call from their shipping service. Vessels are now berthing up to 15 days off their pro-forma window.”
Meanwhile bad weather in Sydney is also said to have impacted vessel operations, with high winds and swell at Port Botany are forecast to continue during Tuesday.
Strong winds have also been experienced at Port of Melbourne.
