MUA fronts Senate inquiry to ship out WorkChoices

The court victory set the stage for an Australian award covering foreign seafarers working on our domestic trade. However it was overturned with the introduction of WorkChoices and today the union was again arguing the case, this time in the parliamentary arena.

The national secretary told the inquiry the union needed to ensure that the proposed new national employment standards allowed for an award covering foreign crew working in the Australian domestic trade in competition with Australian ships and crew.

As it stood this was not the case and the union argued for amendments to the bill.

An award, which already had the in-principle support of the Commission, would not only go a long way to stamping out exploitation of labour in our waters, it would make Australian shipping more competitive

Predictably CSL Australia and other multinational shipping companies operating on the coast on permits opposed the union submission.