The redundancy and replacement of almost 300 sacked Auckland waterfront workers is on hold as the warring Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) prepare for Employment Court hearings.
An Employment Court hearing on Monday appears to be the last opportunity for the bitter dispute to be resolved, and both parties have agreed to stop making media statements in the meantime.
Southern port sources believe Monday's hearing will the "last chance" for resolution and they "have some confidence" both parties will make a concerted effort to avert further disruption.
"Hopefully sensibility goes to the table and there's progress towards a settlement," one source said.
However, the caveat is that if the hearing is unsuccessful MUNZ can be expected to ramp up its picketing by the sacked workers and begin mobilising support from other unions.
Three earlier injunctions mean MUNZ members at other ports cannot stage "secondary" industrial action beyond Auckland's wharves.
So far there has been only relatively minor disruption to individual ships visiting Auckland, but projected losses for POAL are in the tens of millions of dollars, as Fonterra and Maersk have switched much of their business to strike-free Tauranga in recent weeks.
MUNZ late on Thursday successfully sought an injunction to stop the redundancy process so the legality of the mass sackings can be heard before the Employment Court. A hearing is scheduled for March 26.
At issue there will be whether POAL acted in good faith bargaining when it sacked 292 staff, who were on strike, and whether the organisations were still considered to be in contract negotiations at the time. On Monday there will be a judicial settlement conference, in private with the public and media excluded, where POAL and MUNZ will file evidence and possibly come to an agreement.
Another southern port sector source said while the "tone" of Monday's meeting was expected to be more positive, he was sceptical agreement could be reached, "unless both parties step back and start making concessions".
"POAL chose the path of redundancies. Can they back down?" the source asked.
Judge Barry Travis said in the minute from the Auckland Employment Court it was commendable both parties had agreed to the voluntary process in an attempt to seek a settlement.
POAL agreed to stop the redundancy process, not dismiss the MUNZ workers and not engage the Drake Personnel and Allied Workforce, which POAL had announced last week would be supplying the replacement staff. MUNZ, in turn, undertook to pay for cancelled advertisements this weekend of the two employment companies.
