More cruise ships have cancelled their planned visits to Tasmania after TasPorts marine pilots announced they would go back on strike.
The Viking Sky will no longer be calling into Hobart this Saturday and the Norwegian Spirit will skip Burnie on Sunday as negotiations between the state-owned company and the pilots continue.
This decision is expected to disrupt the holidays of thousands of passengers and further negatively impact businesses and tourism operators in both cities.
The pilots recent strike action has already disrupted multiple cruise ship visits to the state, including those of the Disney Wonder and Azamara Journey.
Earlier this week the pilots union hit out at TasPorts for engaging in “unethical behaviour” during negotiations and said they made “totally untrue” claims about pilots refusing to drive electric vehicles.
“As part of the ongoing negotiations … the Marine Pilots suspended Protected Industrial Action in an effort to engage in genuine negotiations with TasPorts,” a union spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately, this has proven to be fruitless with TasPorts not only failing to adequately address Pilots’ outstanding claims but bringing additional claims to the table under the guise of ‘productivity improvements’.”
TasPorts Chief Executive Officer Anthony Donald confirmed that the company has increased its offer from 12% to 14.25% over three years, with a link to productivity improvements.
“The response to return to protected action is extremely disappointing,” Donald said.
“We acknowledge and look forward to the next round of meetings, which will be facilitated by the FWC and trust that a common-sense outcome is achieved, whereby further economic and reputational impact to our customers, communities, tourism and the State is avoided.”
The protected industrial action, including work stoppages on weekends and public holidays, bans on work outside rostered hours and communication with agents, will be reinstated from 12pm on Wednesday.
Further industrial action is scheduled for February 8th, with a four-hour stoppage planned for 6am in the south, 10am in the northwest and 5pm in the north.
