Svitzer tug operator refuses to back away from lockout threat

On Monday, Svitzer - who operates tugs at Port Kembla and 16 other ports around Australia - announced its intention to lock out its employees at all sites indefinitely from noon on Friday.

The threat came after three years of negotiations on a new enterprise agreement.

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"We had hoped it would never come to a lockout - but we are at a point where we see no other option but to respond to the damaging industrial action underway by the unions," Svitzer Managing Director Nicolaj Noes said on Monday.

South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said the company was holding Australia to ransom.

"The great hostage crisis continues, and we the Australian people are all the hostages," Mr Rorris said.

"This cannot be allowed to continue."

Fair Work Commission Commission Vice President Adam Hatcher called Svitzer into a hearing on Wednesday to ask it to remove the threat and return to bargaining with the workers.

The commission took action because under the Fair Work Act it is obliged to step in if proposed industrial action "would threaten to cause significant damage to the Australian economy or an important part of it".

The unions representing workers employed at Svitzer also offered to withdraw any further industrial action until beyond Christmas so that good faith bargaining could resume.

However Svitzer has refused to back down from its promised lockout.

On Thursday a full bench hearing of the Fair Work Commission will consider whether to suspend or terminate the lockout threat made by Svitzer Australia management.

"This amounts to a war on workers, a war on consumers, on households and businesses throughout the supply chain. Svitzer bosses' dogged refusal to withdraw this lockout will destroy Christmas 2022 and bring our economy's post-COVID recovery to a grinding halt," Maritime Union of Australia secretary Paddy Crumlin said.