I must say this is all a big mess. We need to operate these large, seaworthy ships for border protection, but why to they have to
be leased vessels with commercial crews, offshore refitting and small customs parties?
Lets bite the bullet, order the ships we need for this role and man them with servants of the crown!
Sacked seamen fight for jobs
Natasha Robinson and Patricia Karvelas | January 29, 2008
ELEVEN sacked seamen staging a protest on board a Customs ship docked in Darwin harbour will be formally interviewed by the Workplace Ombudsman today as pressure grows for them to have their jobs reinstated.
The crew from the Triton, who refused to disembark when the ship docked at Fort Hill wharf in Darwin on Sunday morning, vowed yesterday to stay on the ship for "as long as it takes" in their campaign against Gardline Australia.
Gardline Australia, which is contracted by the federal Government to operate border patrols in Australia's northern waters, has been accused by the Maritime Union of Australia of breaching the Workplace Relations Act by terminating its contract with manning company TK Shipping, leaving 20 marine crew unemployed.
MUA branch secretary Warren Smith said Gardline had "systematically" replaced sea officers and engineers with foreign labour over the past year, and the union suspected the company planned to employ foreign marine crew in favour of the sacked local workers.
Mr Smith said the sacked marine crew were each receiving an aggregated annual package of $75,000 a year and the union believed Gardline would attempt to employ foreign workers on salaries $30,000 less than that.
In a statement issued last night, Gardline said the sacked workers would be replaced by an Australian crew with no loss of conditions.
The company said the new employment conditions were announced last November and most workers voted for the changes.
Earlier, federal Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus questioned the company's actions.
"The company's behaviour seems to be very short-term, at least from the point of view of a business that wants to go on working with the Australian Government," he said.
"Even if this action by the company is totally legal, their action certainly breaches the spirit of industrial relations behaviour that is supported by the present Government."
Mr Debus appealed to the company to "sit down with all of the interested parties and try to work out something sensible".
The Triton, which picks up asylum-seekers and suspected illegal fisherman, was due to sail to Singapore before the dispute erupted yesterday.
