Australian supply chains at ‘breaking point’ over escalating dockworker pay dispute

Australia’s supply chains are at a “breaking point”, a senior Maersk official has warned as industrial action increases at DP World’s terminals across the country. 

DP World operates terminals in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Fremantle with local stevedores locked in a long running pay dispute that has seen a very wide divergence in what is on the table from the employer versus what unions are after. Industrial action has been going on and off at DP World’s Australian ports since September last year, reaching a peak this week.

The Fair Work Commission has ruled DP World’s employees can stop work at the stevedore’s Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle terminals with a partial stoppage approved in Melbourne, after dockworkers held work bans at these locations on Friday. Workers will be able to walk off the job for 16 hours, though their union must provide five days’ notice.

“All delays and disruptions are the sole responsibility of DP World’s Australian boss, Nicolaj Noes, who failed to attend any of the negotiations held this week,” said Maritime Union of Australia’s assistant national secretary Adrian Evans.

Speaking with the Australian Financial Review, My Therese Blank, Maersk’s head of Oceania, said: “The Australian supply chain is at a breaking point.” She pointed out that Maersk’s Australian shipping schedules were already 10 days late.

“Given the current extensive delays, once the terminal operation is back to normal, it will take the supply chain a couple of months to fully recover from the current situation,” she said. 

DP World commented that the ongoing industrial action is set to further damage the nation’s supply chain with delays on essential items, which are already between two and eight weeks behind schedule, to now widen further.

With the strike action growing, pressure is mounting on the government or the Fair Work Commission to intervene.

Shipping Australia, which represents shipping lines, stressed today: “As the crisis deepens, as the consequences get worse, as the difficulties mount, and as the harm experienced by Australian businesses and families gets worse, just remember this: the Federal and State Governments had the power to intervene to protect their constituents and their people. They had the power to act so as to prevent harm. They had the chance to do something. And they chose to do nothing.”