HPA: Email Layoffs Preceded by Extensive Consultation

Hutchinson Ports Australia (HPA) said in a clarification that the recent laying off of 87 staff via text messages and emails, that was fiercely criticized by the unions, was preceded by careful consideration and extensive face-to-face consultation.

In addition, HPA claims that the text message and email communications are an agreed means of quickly sharing information between the company and staff, in line with the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA).

“There have been several face-to-face meetings and written communications to staff and the MUA during the period between June 26 and August 6 before staff were informed in a text message to check their emails for details on the next steps in the process and the face-to-face meeting about the redundancy program. The company took feedback from employee representatives regarding the selection process for the redundancy program and modified the program accordingly,” said HPA’s General Manager of Human Resources, Harriet Mihalopoulos.

Mihalopoulos voiced the company’s readiness to engage in dialogue with the workers in an attempt to find a solution for the industrial dispute in order to rebuild its operations in Sydney and Brisbane, adding that it has put forward “a number of ways of resolving the current impasse”.

The proposals have not resulted in a binding agreement so far.

HPA, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, closed its Sydney and Brisbane terminals and stopped all activities after sacking around 100 out of its 224 dockworkers via an email sent around midnight August 6, local time.

The move was followed by workers’ outrage and protests and subsequent involvement of the Fair Work Commission ordering workers to stop the protests.

On August 14th, the Australian Federal Court granted a temporary injunction preventing Hutchison Ports Australia from making the workers redundant and ordering the workers should return to work at least until the full hearing of the dispute scheduled for August 31.

“As a result of this, HPA is now considering all of its options ahead of the Federal Court hearing on September 1st,” Mihalopoulos added.

“Workers sacked by midnight text and email nearly three weeks ago by Hutchison Ports Australia will take their campaign to the streets in three capital cities today to join the #BigLittleProtest run by Vodafone Australia – which is half owned by Hutchison,” the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) informed today.

MUA added that it would again meet with Hutchison management at the Fair Work Commission in Sydney today ahead of the Federal Court case that begins next week.