| 1998 Australian Waterfront Dispute |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT 1998 AUSTRALIAN WATERFRONT DISPUTE | |
| labour disputes in australia | |
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| 1998 in australia | |
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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS LEGISLATION The Howard government, before being elected in s - to intervene. In addition to reducing the powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to Arbitrate disputes, the act also introduced individual employment contracts, known as Australian Workplace Agreement s (AWA)s, into the Australian system. The watering down of Collective Bargaining provisions were a source of objection for many unions. The main objective of both Patrick and the Government was to diminish the number of waterfront workers held under collective bargaining agreements and replace them with AWA workers. BEGINNINGS OF THE DISPUTE Australian waterfront productivity had been an issue of concern since the 1980 s. Patrick sought to improve productivity by creating redundancies and reducing overtime entitlements for its permanent employees, as well as hiring more Contract Employee s on a Casual basis. After the legislative introduction of Australian Workplace Agreement s, a number of stevedoring operators toyed with bringing individual contract workers into their workforces, but abandoned their plans in the face of strident union opposition. THE DUBAI EXPERIMENT Investigations by Media revealed that in December 1997 , an Australian stevedoring company, Fynwest, had taken to hiring out-of-work Australian Defence Force personnel to work as stevedores under AWAs in Dubai , in the United Arab Emirates . The plans of the company were to either take these workers back to Australia or use the training program to train more. Intense criticism and the threat of industrial retaliation forced the company to cancel its plan. LITIGATION ]] EXTERNAL LINKS
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