Some sacked Australian dockers could be back at work as early as today after winning a legal battle against the companies that fired them.
The Australian High Court yesterday stood by a lower court ruling ordering the reinstatement of the 1,400 dockers, sacked four weeks ago by union-busting Patrick Stevedores. The sackings were backed by Mr John Howard's conservative coalition government.
The court also untied the hands of accountants appointed as administrators of four Patrick labour-hire units, altering the earlier Federal Court ruling to say that port operations would have to be viable or the companies could still be closed down.
Administrator, Mr Bill Butterell, said the first group of dockers, members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), could be back at work this morning.
But, he said, not all 1,400 would get their jobs back because Patrick had already closed seven minor terminals around Australia, and others would initially not be paid. The government was being asked to cover redundancy payments.
The return to work was made possible by Patrick's unexpected decision to pay A$3.65 million (£1.64 million) needed as operating capital for the four companies.
But the chairman of Patrick, Mr Chris Corrigan, said the administrator had only three weeks to make the businesses viable or creditors would move in.
"Either he [the administrator] can put together a set of arrangements that makes these companies viable, or they will be put into liquidation," Mr Corrigan said.
Yesterday's court ruling was another setback for Mr Howard and his government, which has trumpeted reform on the docks ahead of an early election expected later this year.
The Opposition Labor Party leader, Mr Kim Beazley, said the court ruling had delivered a major blow to the government, which was already struggling in opinion polls as a result of the dispute.
"That is going to do them irreparable damage," Mr Beazley said. "Any government which has been prepared to take things this far is not a government that can ever be trusted again".
The High Court ruling in Canberra was greeted by cheers at dockside pickets around the country. "It's a great day for the workers of this country," Mr Paddy Crumlin, assistant national secretary of the MUA told about 200 trade unionists and their families outside Patrick's Fremantle dock in Western Australia.
Patrick, Australia's second-biggest port operator, sacked its entire trade union workforce on April 7th, using security guards and dogs to evict them, and replaced them with about 400 non-union contract workers.
Both Patrick and the government argued the sackings were vital to boosting productivity on the docks. The union said the sackings were part of an illegal union-breaking conspiracy, and took legal action to bring the case to trial.
Yesterday's reinstatement order was technically an interim measure pending an eventual trial.