Cruise Vessel Vasco Da Gama retains two of three Tasmanian port call visits

TasPorts has been advised cruise vessel Vasco Da Gama will miss its scheduled three-hour visit to Burnie Port on 1 February 2024 from 1500 to 1800 due to protected industrial action, maintaining its calls to Port Arthur and Hobart.

TasPorts Chief Executive Officer Anthony Donald said he sympathised with businesses frustrated by the disruption and that TasPorts was working hard to minimise the impact and find ways to ensure scheduled itineraries could be maintained wherever possible.

“While we respect the right for our marine pilots to take protected industrial action, we understand the impact this has on our regions and small businesses, whether that is a long stopover or a short one”, he said.

“Vasco Da Gama will still visit Hobart and Port Arthur but, unfortunately, has cancelled the scheduled three-hour stopover at Burnie.”

Vasco Da Gama has approximately 1250 passengers and 500 crew.

The protected industrial action includes an indefinite stoppage of work on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays and a ban on conducting any work outside usual rostered hours (both with exemptions including emergencies).

This is in addition to existing protected industrial action underway except in the case of emergencies, including an indefinite ban on communication with agents and schedulers and a ban on the performance of pilotage services at night.

TasPorts has an offer to its pilots where, in addition to a 12% salary increase over three years (5%, 3.5%, 3.5%), we have provided the opportunity to retain their existing vehicle conditions for the life of the agreement, including a vehicle to the value of $47,500 for full private use, including fuel (after the marine pilots rejected a move to electric vehicles), in a direct attempt to prevent further protected industrial action from happening.

TasPorts is committed to negotiating an agreement that is fair and reasonable so that safe and reliable port operations can continue.

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