Bargaining at VICT reaches historic conclusion: pay rises, permanent roles and roster improvements

MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA

MEDIA RELEASE

28 AUGUST 2025

MUA Bargaining at VICT Reaches Historic Conclusion: pay rises, permanent roles and roster improvements

The Maritime Union of Australia is on the cusp of achieving a major outcome for wharfies employed at Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT), with negotiations for a new Enterprise Agreement approaching the final stages. MUA members have endorsed the agreement with 96% voting in favour to lock in a monumental uplift in wages, conditions, and job security. The agreement also applies new restrictions on the introduction of AI and other new technologies without agreement.

Acting Assistant National Secretary, Jake Field, congratulated the local bargaining team led by the Victorian Branch for their efforts, describing the outcome as “a quantum leap forward” for members at the Webb Dock terminal.

“Less than a decade ago, VICT was established as a non-union greenfields site at the Webb Dock terminal, which was the scene of the opening salvos in the 1998 waterfront war led by Patricks Stevedores and the Liberal Government,” Field said. “But through determination, organisation, solidarity and a willingness by all parties to engage consultatively and productively we have reached agreement.”

VICT has significant market share in the Port of Melbourne, and the new agreement being delivered is in line with industry standards for pay, job security and safety.

The new VICT Enterprise Agreement delivers:

• Clauses that limit the implementation of AI and other new technology without agreement from the workforce
• At least 42 additional permanent positions under new rosters
• Significant pay increases for both permanents and casuals
• A 46% pay increase for casuals, alongside improved minimum shift lengths
• A reduction in average weekly hours to align with industry standards
• Variable Engineering rosters commencing on a 36-hour week
• Strengthened delegate and union rights within the workplace
• Full alignment with industry-standard wages and conditions

“The solidarity and maturity shown by delegates and rank-and-file members has delivered these extraordinary outcomes,” Field said. “It is a defining moment for unionised labour at VICT, demonstrating once again that the collective determination of workers delivers real results.”

This comes at the same time that competitor DP World seeks to confront its workforce with an automation agenda intended to eliminate jobs in spite of the productivity losses the company acknowledges will occur through its proposal.

As a greenfields site built ten years ago, VICT was designed from day one as an automated port, but over time hundreds of jobs have been added back in to the operation as the operator has realised that skilled human workers are more effective, adaptive and responsive than robots. There are now hundreds of MUA members covered by the new agreement at VICT.

In the meantime, DP World has already significantly increased its prices for clients and Australian consumers in order to pay for an automation project that will demonstrably reduce throughput at four major terminals and exacerbate congestion throughout the supply chain.

“Every port automation experiment has failed to live up to expectations, but whereas VICT went in on day one with an automation element and began adding workers back in by their hundreds in order to become competitive, DP World’s automation agenda is a brazen jobs and union busting exercise that they admit will slow them down and make their four terminals less productive,” said Mr Field.

ENDS