Australian container ports are facing a threat of shutdowns and supply chain disruptions after A.P. Moller-Maersk-owned Svitzer, which provides tug boat crews, announced an indefinite lockout from Friday (18 November).
The planned action is an escalation of protracted wage agreement disputes with trade unions.
“This step is being taken by Svitzer under the provisions of the Fair Work Act in response to damaging and ongoing industrial action being organised by the unions,” the company said.
Svitzer further noted, “There have been more than 1100 instances of industrial action notified by the maritime unions since October 2020.
Since 26 October 2022, there have been more than 250 instances of protected industrial action alone, amounting to nearly 2000 hours of work stoppages. There is new protected action being notified by the unions on an almost daily basis.”
The company also said shipping operations at major metropolitan and regional Australian ports nationwide in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia are expected to be impacted.
Maersk has also put out notices warning customers about potential supply chain disruptions.
“We have received notification from Svitzer of the intended lockout of all crew covered by their existing enterprise agreement and have been working to better understand the ramifications of this,” the carrier said.
It also explained: “As noted by Svitzer, the position has been taken post nearly 2000 hours of work stoppages being actioned by the respective unions over the past month. This coupled with other operational disruption has already created significant challenges for Australian supply chains, as can be evidenced by Maersk actioning over 40 contingencies in the past month.”
The Danish liner giant has also begun to readjust sailing schedules of its services to mitigate the impact of port congestion and vessel berthing delays. To that end, a trade advisory announcing schedule changes on its “Komodo service” between Australia and South East Asia has been issued.
“In order to continue serving Australian supply chains in the best manner possible, Maersk is working on contingency plans to limit the impact to our customers as far as possible, however until a definitive position is reached, we will continue to operate on a business-as-usual basis,” it added.
Jenny Daniel
Global Correspondent
Contact email: j.daniel@container-news.com
