Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) is offering striking union members a 3% pay increase.
LPC operations manager Paul Monk says, in a statement today, the company will give Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) members the salary increase each year for three years.
The port company have given members of the other major union, the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), a 4% salary increase this year and 3% for each over the next two years.
MUNZ members have agreed to new roster changes which RMTU members have not agreed to.
“The RMTU wants the same pay increases MUNZ received but refuses to make the roster changes MUNZ members have.
“RMTU members want the same money but without being prepared to accept the same rosters accepted by their colleagues.
“Confronted with this, we dropped our request for them to make the roster changes MUNZ accepted and have offered them a 3% salary increase each year for three years.
‘We cannot agree to their having a salary advantage over their MUNZ Union colleagues at the Port.
“That would be unfair. It would not be equal pay for equal work. It would severely disadvantage the 200 staff at our port who are MUNZ members,” Monk says.
RMTU released a statement on Thursday after negotiations saying eight scenarios for settlement were put on the table but “LPC has not amended its position one jot”.
RMTU has further strikes set from midnight March 20.
