But the strike could be cancelled after StarTrack – which has offered employees a 9 per cent pay rise over three years without any reductions to work conditions – applied to the Fair Work Commission to stop it going ahead on the basis it could stop AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines being delivered on time. If the vaccine cartons are out of refrigerators too long or become too hot,they could be spoiled,the company says in its application to the commission.
The union slammed that as an attempt to use the pandemic to stop its workers from protecting their jobs. “Medical supplies and vaccines are,now and always,exempted from strike action,” it said in a statement.
“The TWU has provided an undertaking to StarTrack and requested detail as to which yards and workers are involved in the transport of vaccines and medical supplies to ensure those union members do not participate in the strike.”
StarTrack spokeswoman Michelle Skehan said the union had only notified StarTrack of the exemption on Monday morning,after the company applied to suspend the industrial action on Sunday evening,and questioned how that proposal would work.
“It is an extremely difficult manual process to separately identify and extract[vaccines and medical supplies] once they’ve entered our system,” Ms Skehan said. “Collection of vaccines and medical supplies also require drivers to collect the products and we anticipate drivers may not be available during industrial action.”
If the strike is not cancelled,StarTrack has asked for it to be postponed for four months.
An email seen byThe Sydney Morning HeraldandThe Ageshows the union informed StarTrack’s lawyers at Ashurst of the exemption late on Sunday evening,and the union says it was also made clear publicly for weeks that vaccines would not be affected by its industrial action.