TUG company Svitzer has docked the pays of its national workforce ahead of tomorrow's planned lockout of employees, even though the Fair Work Commission will sit today and tomorrow if necessary in an effort to avert the employer lockout.
Svitzer also acknowledged docking the pays of its Newcastle workers for a strike that was planned to have started at midnight last night but which was formally called off early last night.
The company said the pays were docked because employees are paid in advance, and the current pay cycle deadline was on Tuesday, when the pays were set.
It has said it is working to pay the Newcastle workers and those in other Svitzer ports which dropped their planned industrial action last night, and says it will get the money to its workers as soon as possible.
It says the same thing will happen if the lockout is called off, and will work to ensure the money is there as soon as possible.
But the decision to dock pays has angered the unions involved in the dispute.
Maritime Union of Newcastle secretary Glen Williams said all of the company's Newcastle wages were "short when they went into their accounts".
"It's all very well to say they will make it up but it's a bit late when people have automatic debits coming out of their accounts, often timed in anticipation of expected wages going in," Mr Williams said.
The MUA's national secretary Paddy Crumlin described the dockings as "brazen and contemptuous".
"While the Fair Work Commission was asking Svitzer bosses to voluntarily withdraw their lockout, the HR and Payroll team was busily docking wages in anticipation of an indefinite lockout," Mr Crumlin said.
"Clearly they are not happy having achieved a four year wage-freeze, now they're summarily docking people's pay for a lockout that hasn't and hopefully won't happen yet.
"This amounts of course to yet another gratuitous act of aggression against their employees who will in all likelihood be returned to work on Friday.
"It is consistent however with their intention all along to detonate the industrial bargaining process regardless of any economic and industrial damage this would cause," he said.
The Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers (AIMPE) which represents the tug engineers, also confirmed it was angry at the dockings.
The Svitzer dispute exploded onto the national stage this week when the Danish-owned company, by far the largest operator of tugs in Australian waters, announced it was locking out its entire 580-strong workforce in 17 ports from noon tomorrow.
Svitzer and the unions representing its workers - the MUA, AIMPE and the Australian Maritime Officers Union (AMOU, representing tug captains) have been trying for three years to settle on a new enterprise agreement to replace the existing 2016 document that has been "rolled over" since its nominal expiry date in 2019.
The federal government has intervened in the matter, with Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke urging the parties to return to the bargaining table.
The Fair Work Commission took the unusual step of intervening in the national interest - fearing potential or actual harm to the national economy, or part of it - with its hearings to resume at 1pm today, Thursday.
A further hearing has been scheduled for 9am tomorrow, Friday, if today's talks do not result in Svitzer agreeing to drop its national lockout of workers.
Although the Newcastle strike and others planned in various ports were called off yesterday, shipping was still disrupted.
The NSW Port Authority, which supplies ship's pilots (harbour-based captains) to bring vessels in and out of Newcastle, Port Botany and Port Kembla, said today that it had taken steps to rearrange the movement of ships in anticipation of the eventually cancelled industrial action.
Port sources said there were no shipping movements in Newcastle last night, and it is understood this was a result of the Port Authority clearing as many vessels during the day in anticipation of the strike.
Matters have been complicated in Newcastle by the arrival of a big southerly swell measuring more than six metres on the Nobbys buoys, with the Port Authority confirming that shipping has been suspended in Newcastle until the swell abates.
Although other waterfront employers including stevedoring companies Patrick and DP World have come out in support of Svitzer's stance in this dispute, the federal government and others have condemned tomorrow's proposed indefinite lockout as holding the nation to ransom.
