Unions demand local labour use

The warning came as the port mooted the possibility of flying in skilled staff from Wellington and Lyttelton ahead of it facing one of the busiest fortnights in its history, during which it handled about 26,000 containers equating to a record 37,000 TEU.

MUNZ national vice-president Garry Parsloe claimed the port had laid off too many workers a few months ago as part of its terminal consolidation process. “Any prudent port employer knows they must provide for volume variability of tonnage,” he said. “Having an adequate supply of suitably qualified staff so that these situations don’t arise is ‘Management 101’.”

Ports of Auckland operations and productivity general manager Grant Jorey retorted that Mr Parsloe was making “inaccurate and misleading” statements. “In fact, Ports of Auckland agreed to a MUNZ request to accept more voluntary redundancies than was initially proposed,” he said.

Mr Jorey said volume during the busy period was 30-40% above normal, but did not represent an underlying increase in demand. “The record fortnight was the result of an exceptional one-off exchange involving the swapping of two vessels between services for one of our customers.”