Union rally against chambers of commerce

MARITIME Union of Australia members are planning rallies around the country to urge the business community to back waterfront safety reforms.

Rallies are planned outside chamber of commerce offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin and Devonport on Tuesday.

The union's Assistant National Secretary, Warren Smith, said on Monday the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) had intervened in the development of the National Stevedoring Code of Practice (NSCOP).

The NSCOP sought to create a uniform national set of safety guidelines for stevedoring, following a spate of deaths on the waterfront over the past ten years, he said in a statement.

"Wharfies are fourteen times more likely to die at work than the average Australian worker," Mr Smith said.

The development of the code of practice has been a collaborative effort between Safe Work Australia, state regulators, the union and industry representatives.

But Mr Smith said big stevedoring companies and the representative of foreign shippers, Shipping Australia, last year tried to "bomb the code".

"To its credit, Safe Work Australia maintained the key protections in the code, but now ACCI has weighed in, delaying the code's progress by making factually incorrect, misleading claims about the cost of implementation to industry.

"It is disgraceful for ACCI to misrepresent any impact on a company's bottom line when it comes to protecting the safety of workers."

An ACCI spokesman said Australian industry was committed to ensuring businesses operated safely and businesses had to be safe to be productive.

"That's why industry, together with other stakeholders, is involved in developing documents aimed at safe workplace practices," he said in a statement.

"We work together with unions and others to make sure the documents reflect good practice and accurately conform to legislative requirements."

The ACCI spokesman said the final decision on any document would be made jointly by SafeWork Australia and the government, and it was not up to individual parties.

"We all want to see credible, workable guidance on how to operate safely.

"And we need to take time to ensure that the guidance is as accurate and helpful as possible. The safety of our people depends upon it."

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