TODAY's national lockout of Svitzer workers in Newcastle and 16 other ports will not proceed after a full bench of the Fair Work Commission decided it would cause sufficient damage to the economy to justify their stopping it.
After six hours of hearing in the commission yesterday, it was confirmed that the controversial lockout was off, but the final terms of the commission's directions or orders will not be known until after it meets again this morning.
Although the Fair Work hearing in Sydney was the focus of a dispute that has grabbed the national attention, spot fires broke out in various ports yesterday as word spread that Svitzer had docked the pays of its employees ahead of strikes that did not proceed.
Svitzer said it was making up pays as quickly as possible.
A Svitzer spokesperson acknowledged the dockings, and confirmed that pays had also been docked in anticipation of the lockout, which involves Svitzer stopping its employees from entering the workplace - the inverse of a traditional strike where it's the employees who withdraw their labour.
In this case, Svitzer, the employer, was determined to refuse work to its employees indefinitely from noon today, saying it had no choice after three years of failed negotiations to secure a new enterprise agreement.
The three unions involved - the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), the Australian Maritime Officers Union and the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers - deny they are to blame, and say Svitzer has taken an inflexible stance on negotiations in an effort to drive down pay and conditions on the waterfront.
MUA Newcastle secretary Glen Williams said after yesterday's hearing that the commission had found the lockout by Svitzer was an industrial action and that it could damage the national economy.
As a result, the full bench acknowledged that it needed to make orders to the parties, and that it needed to give further consideration to the facts of the case before it decided whether it would "suspend" or "terminate" the lockout.
"But the short story is that the lockout will not proceed on Friday," Mr Williams said.
This was confirmed shortly before deadline by a spokesperson from Svitzer.
Mr Williams said the parties expected the commission would make its final decision by 11am today, an hour before the lockout was due to start.
He called it a victory for the union, and "a great outcome for anyone who draws a wage from the waterfront, or in those industries that depend on our ports".
The Port of Newcastle was officially closed by the harbour master because of a rising southerly swell that had topped six metres in the buoys off Nobbys, but the Port Authority of NSW had already begun moving what shipping it could out of the port on Wednesday to avoid the industrial action that has now been avoided.
On Wednesday, the three unions agreed to stop all of their industrial action, which included a 24-hour strike in Newcastle that would have run until Thursday midnight.
But it was the loss of pay that had the unions fuming, even though the workers may have been expecting it, given Svitzer says its fortnightly pay system includes one week's pay in advance.
A spokesperson said the current pay cycle deadline was on Tuesday, when the pays were set.
It said it was working to pay the Newcastle workers and those in other Svitzer ports which dropped their industrial action.
It said it was doing the same for the docked lockout pay, but the MUA said it was "a bit late for people with automatic debits".
