Australian supply chains could grind to a pandemic-style halt soon if massive fuel bills fall on the small courier and trucking businesses working for major supermarkets, retailers and miners, the Transport Workers’ Union warns.
The TWU and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation have initiated an emergency hearing in front of the industrial umpire, as Australia’s small business couriers, trucking companies and owner-drivers face monthly fuel bills double the standard cost.
The unions are calling for the Fair Work Commission to make the large supermarkets, mining companies and retailers at the top of the supply chains pay for the heightened current fuel prices.
A hearing in Sydney began on Wednesday, where the commission effectively granted the unions leave to advance their cause, before witnesses were called and further hearings were pencilled in for Friday and Monday.
Speaking outside the commission before the hearing, subcontracted Sydney owner-driver Zach O’Brien said road transport drivers would go broke if the contractor companies did not pay.
He drives for major hauler Team Global Express (TGE).
Mr O’Brien is also a union delegate, and says he is getting calls every night from drivers who cannot fill up their vehicles, or cannot afford to take a day off, because fuel prices had doubled.
The 200 drivers he represents do home deliveries, stock shopping centres and service hospitals across NSW.
Even with TGE passing on the recent cut in the fuel excise to the subcontractors, Mr O’Brien said business margins had evaporated.
“I’m very lucky that we work for a business, TGE, that has passed on the fuel excise to us. We’re getting a levy every week, but it’s still not enough. Fuel costs have doubled for us,” he said.
“They’ve taken the steps, they’ve realised that if drivers can’t come to work, the whole industry’s finished.
“If we can’t come, there’s nothing left, there’ll be nothing on the shelves, we’ll run out of fuel; we’ll run out of drivers before we run out of fuel if we can’t pay for it.”
Also before the hearing, TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the Australian economy was hurtling toward a Covid-era supply chain disruption.
“We’re all here to say to the Fair Work Commission, you’ve got powers to act here to ensure that road transport businesses are paid for the cost of this unprecedented fuel spike,” Mr Kaine said.
“Make no mistake, if we don’t get this right, then road transport will grind to a halt.
“Everyone in the Australian community remembers covid, remembers how critical road transport supply chains, transport companies and transport workers were … we must attend to this present existential crisis that faces it.”
People who own their own business and drive a courier van or truck, or work in or own a business with a dozen or less vehicles were facing a major fuel bill deadline later this month, Mr Kaine said.
“Thousands of road transport businesses pay their fuel three weeks after month’s end,” he said.
“That means that on April 21 we’re going to have transport businesses right across the Australian economy having to fund double the fuel bill that they paid for in relation to February.
“Road transport is teetering on a debt cliff. That debt cliff becomes ever more apparent by April 21.”
During the hearing, lawyers for the unions called University of Technology Sydney Associate Professor Michael Rawlings to give evidence.
Dr Rawlings is an industrial law expert, who researches how supply chains affect road transport businesses and workers.
He told the hearing the freight industry had very low profit margins and high insolvency rates because of an “underregulation” and an “inequality in bargaining power” baked into how the freight companies deal with the major corporations.
Tight profit margins create low-paid roles, and incentivise drivers pushing faster and longer hours on the road, he said.
“There’s clearly a large body of evidence that points to a connection between low pay and poor safety outcomes,” Dr Rawlings said.
The TWU is pushing for the Fair Work Commission to make orders before huge fuel bills smother small trucking and courier businesses on April 21.
“It is critical that before that time transport operators and transport workers have the confidence of knowing that those who are paying their bills, those behemoths at the top of road transport supply chains, are going to do what’s in the national interests and that is pay their fair share,” Mr Kaine said outside the commission hearing.
“That is pay for these cost spikes. Stop shirking responsibility, open the purse strings and make sure you are funding those that make Australia connected.”
At the Fair Work Commission hearings, owner-drivers and transport workers are expected to detail how they have had to scale back their operations since diesel prices began skyrocketing, and how some face unsustainable costs.
In the final week of March, federal parliament passed the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz ground on into a second month, global oil supply remained constricted, prices at the bowser kept rising and more and more service stations ran out of fuel.
Under the new laws, the Transport Workers’ Union and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation have applied to the industrial umpire for the major corporations at the top of supply chains to pay for increased fuel costs rather than the smaller operators running trucking and courier businesses.
On Tuesday, Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth released a draft ministerial determination – a proposal for the Fair Work Commission to make the road transport contractual chain order without the usual six-month minimum time frame.
Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation national secretary Peter Anderson says the small trucking businesses are being squeezed.
“We know there are transport clients out there doing the right thing and making sure they pass down fair fuel relief. But there are far too many still refusing to pay their fair share.
“Transport businesses small and large are weeks away from shutting up shop, if they haven’t already,” Mr Anderson said before the hearing began.
“We urgently need to see clients putting in place weekly fuel reviews to keep national supply chains running sustainably, and businesses in operation.”
