Friday, 16 February, 2018 – 07:53
Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) has heard that the Rail and Maritime Transport Union of New Zealand (RMTU) are planning industrial action.
LPC Chief Executive Peter Davie says the Company has made LPC RMTU members a very generous offer while asking them to accept small changes most of which have already been embraced by their MUNZ colleagues at the Port.
“We are offering annual salary increases of at least 3%. That is almost double the current rate of inflation (1.6%). They are asking for salary increases up to 15.45% for some of their members. These jobs in the Port are all well paid.
“We are a fair and reasonable employer but such salary demands by RMTU are unreasonable. These demands come on top of the substantial salary increases we have given their members over the last three years. The 187 employees who make up 40% of the LPC Container Terminal staff covered by these negotiations received total wage increases of 7.5% during that time.
“We concluded negotiations in 2017 with the other major Union at our Port, theMaritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), which 60% of our Container Terminal staff belong to. We agreed with MUNZ more efficient roster alignment in the Container Terminal to support our operations and growing customer needs. We are keen to see these arrangements also adopted by the RMTU so we can continue to improve customer services and remain competitive with other New Zealand ports.
“With our ongoing volume growth there is the need for better mechanical maintenance coverage. We have agreed with the RMTU a roster for these staff which we both find acceptable but we reject their unrealistic wage demand.
“We were very disappointed to hear of the planned industrial action, as negotiations until now have progressed constructively. We would expect that the next step will be mediation and we remain hopeful that we can continue to make progress and reach agreement.”