Fair Pay Agreements

GRAHAM MCKEAN (COACH) NATIONAL ORGANIZER

Kia ora koutou katoa,

The National Organiser role is a new position within MUNZ and has a primary focus on Fair Pay Agreements (FPA) and Delegate Training.

I am presently travelling around all of the ports in the nation to meet with port and stevedoring companies and most importantly Port Workers.

The discussions that I am having with all of these groups revolves around the new legislative changes on FPA’s, Port Codes of Compliance (PCC), and Health and Safety (H&S) with a focus on Fatigue Risk Management (FRM).

FPA’s are designed to set minimum standards of employment across the entire Ports Industry.

It will decouple any competitive advantage some employers gain from the low wage and reduced employment conditions business model.

The FPA concept benefits good employers, who offer good employment conditions, over poor employers, who offer poor employment conditions.

MUNZ has just recently settled a collective agreement with ISO that offers significantly increased wage rates, payment for employee availability, predictable Guaranteed Days Off over a 12-month period, and a Guaranteed Workday.

This document will be the benchmark for the FPA bargaining in regard to General Stevedoring.

We are required to collect a thousand signatures of Port Workers who agree to have the union’s advocate on their behalf for an FPA.

The Port Workers FPA will not replace your normal collective agreement bargaining but will run in conjunction with it.

Please make sure that you have completed the FPA link at: https://www.munz.org.nz/fpa/

Port Codes of Compliance (PCC) has a ‘tripartite’ working group involving Government, Businesses and Unions. The group is crafting a document that standardises all of the work practises on the New Zealand waterfront.

The focus is to make sure different Stevedoring Companies have a common approach to work conditions and there is no skimping on labour numbers and job processes.

This will support the work practices of good employers over those employers who prioritize profit over accepted safe labour numbers and work practises.

The PCC will also quantify the role that the Port Companies leadership have as the Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) as recognised in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

In my travels I have met with Port Company leaders and there seems to be some difference of viewpoints on responsibilities around FRM.

This will be resolved as the PCC is finalised, but the fundamental principle remains – if it happens on your patch, you have the overriding responsibility.

The upcoming court case where Maritime New Zealand is prosecuting the former Ports of Auckland CEO will be seen as a precedent in this discussion.

During the course of my nationwide sojourn, I am also running Delegate Training Courses.

We have already held a number of highly successful events.

Underpinning these courses is the MUNZ investment in the membership’s knowledge is power premise.

I look forward to the opportunity to meet with as many of you as I can on this journey and to get a true feel of the heartbeat of our union.

Solidarity, comradery and strength.

Nga mihi nui.