Industrial action set to besiege Australia

Australia is bracing for a bruising new round of union action that could shut down the wharves, hit key Government agencies - including Prime Minister Julia Gillard's own department - and disrupt Qantas flights.

The disputes extend beyond pay into employment conditions and job security, and include Qantas pilots' claims that the airline is using New Zealand-based operations as a stalking horse for a scheme to set up similar subsidiaries in Asia and hire cheap foreign aircrew.

Federal public servants have described their industrial climate as the worst since the bitter years of former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, whose harsh union laws contributed significantly to the landslide that rolled Labor into power in 2007.

"The Public Service Commission can say many agencies have finished negotiations [but] what they're not telling you is that their requirements mean more agencies are walking away without reaching agreement ... than has happened since the Howard days," Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood said.

Yesterday waterside workers began stoppages at Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle, the CPSU notified federal arbitrator Fair Work Australia of bargaining disputes in 12 agencies covering more than 100,000 public servants, and pilots were preparing a ballot on possible action.

The Maritime Union of Australia said it had begun partial work bans at major ports after almost eight months of unsuccessful negotiations with stevedoring company Patrick over pay and conditions.

It said the company had responded to legally-protected industrial action granted by Fair Work Australia by standing down its workforce, voluntarily shutting down container terminals around Australia.

Confrontation between the MUA and Patrick closed the nation's ports in 1998 in a dispute that saw the stevedore hire strikebreakers to train in Dubai, the Government force through efficiency reforms, and crippling costs to the economy.

Unions yesterday claimed their new action had been forced on watersiders by Patrick's refusal to negotiate fairly, the disclosure of a secret plan for a month-long lockout, and the company's desire for a return to "the dark days of 1998".

"Patrick's hard line with its workforce will shut down Australia's shipping terminals and sabotage the Australian economy," Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Jeff Lawrence said.

Patrick had attempted to avoid action with a call for new talks, and yesterday offered to begin voluntary conciliation before the Fair Work Commission .

Patrick director Paul Geraty told ABC radio union action would bring the nation's ports to a halt, shutting down the stevedore's operations for seven days and locking up almost 50 per cent of Australia's waterfront capacity.

Elsewhere, the CPSU said it was planning action that would hit some of the federal Government's most crucial operations, including national security, health, welfare and transport.

The issues in dispute include superannuation, leave entitlements, working hours, pay, redeployment, redundancy, the employment of indigenous Australians and dispute resolution.

Proposed action will hit the departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Defence, Immigration, Customs, Human Services Infrastructure, Transport, Health and Ageing, Finance, Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the Tax Office.

The union representing Qantas pilots, the Australian and International Pilots Association, has also filed for a ballot of its members to take protected action.

A claim lodged with Fair Work Australia seeks to protect pilots against outsourcing and "offshoring" of their jobs, following the displacement of Australian crews from transtasman routes by New Zealanders working at substantially lower rates of pay for the wholly-owned Jetconnect subsidiary.

The association is already fighting the Jetconnect contract arrangements before Fair Work Australia, under which pilots are paid New Zealand rates of pay because they were hired by a New Zealand company based in Auckland.

It argues that Jetconnect is an Australian airline because it is 100 per cent owned by Qantas, its aircraft fly in Qantas livery, and all ticketing and promotion is based on the airline's brand.

The association claims Qantas now intends setting up other foreign airlines whose cheaper crews could undermine the jobs of Australian long-haul crews.

A spokesman said apparent moves included an application for a Malaysian aircraft operators' certificate, a further application for 5000 seats a week out of Fiji, and reported plans to establish a new "premier" airline based in Southeast Asia.

Qantas said it needed to look at its falling share of the international market and had established a project team to look at its global operations.

"A range of options are being considered but no decisions have been made about the direction Qantas will be taking at this stage," a company statement said.