The Australian Federal Court has granted a temporary injunction preventing Hutchison Ports Australia from sacking 97 dockworkers at ports in Sydney and Brisbane.
In her yesterday’s ruling, Justice Darryl Rangiah accepted that there was a prima facie case that Hutchison Ports Australia had breached an enterprise agreement entered into with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).
Justice Rangiah ordered that the 97 workers cannot be made redundant and that they should return to work at least until the full hearing of the dispute scheduled for August 31.
On August 12, MUA asked the Federal Court to issue the injunction, as well as damages and penalties, saying that Hutchison Ports Australia breached its enterprise agreement with its workers on two grounds: lacking of adequate consultation with respect to redundancies, and ignoring the dispute resolution clause.
As World Maritime News previously reported, Hutchison Ports Australia closed its Sydney and Brisbane terminals and stopped all activities after sacking 97 out of its 224 dockworkers via emails and text messages sent around midnight August 6, local time.
World Maritime News Staff