The Maritime Union of Australia today advised the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that it has provided undertakings to the Federal Court of Australia that it will not take any industrial action.
'At a meeting in Melbourne today, the MUA has stated it will clarify and confirm the undertakings in writing to the ACCC by Friday,' ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today. 'The ACCC will await this written confirmation and clarification. Such undertakings remove some of the urgency of the matter,' he said. 'Before today's meeting the ACCC had given details of its allegations to the union, which are based on extensive material.
'The ACCC reserves it position in respect of those allegations. 'The ACCC does not accept claims by the MUA that ACCC intervention would be unhelpful as the union regards its claims as purely an industrial matter. The ACCC drew the MUA's attention to the fact that Parliament had recently passed laws prohibiting secondary boycotts, with especially strong provisions with regard to the waterfront.
'Moreover, the conduct in question has the potential to damage competition on the waterfront. 'The ACCC's intervention was caused by MUA actions, widely publicised by the MUA, that appear to breach the Trade Practices Act.
'The ACCC's job is to ensure that there are no breaches of the law by anyone - although interestingly it is nearly always portrayed by affected parties as taking sides when it intervenes in the public interest, and the waterfront has been no exception. The ACCC has a history of vigorous enforcement of the law to business.
'Much of the ACCC's success in the 1990s has been due to its uncompromising enforcement of the law against the most powerful interests in Australia, earning it the support of governments, the Courts and the trust of the public. 'The ability of the ACCC to achieve pro-consumer results in many areas would be crippled if it started making special exceptions in defiance of clear Parliamentary intent.'