The new generation wharfies / dockers


WOMEN WHARFIES: (From left to right) Chanae Duzevich, Hayley Kirwan and Mareah Rua are enjoying the benefits of Ports of Auckland's new recruitment policy.


The stevedore or “wharfie” stand at high school career expos has probably not, it’s fair to say, traditionally been overrun with queues of teenaged girls.
The informal job description of a wharfie has in the past been far more likely to bring to mind words like “burly” and, to be honest “male”. But that is changing fast at Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL) thanks to some radical makeovers of its recruitment policy and processes.
Perhaps more than any other industry in this country, our ports are steeped in history and tradition. Workers doing the heavy lifting –  literally – on the waterfront have often come from a long line of wharfies, stretching back three or four generations. With that has come a policy of promotion by duration. If you were a wharfie the rules said you started out as a lasher: end of story.
Though the job title comes from the old days when cargo was lashed to ships with rope, in a modern port being a lasher involves wielding long, hefty metal poles, weighing upwards of 24kg that are locked together to keep containers in place. The physical demands of the role meant very few women worked as stevedores and of those who did even fewer lasted very long.
Given that the port’s traditional advancement process tended to be based on longevity of service, the paucity of women at that entry level of employment meant Ports of Auckland was bereft of women in all areas of the business, from the docks to senior management.
Fast forward to 2011 and the arrival of current POAL CEO Tony Gibson, at a time when the port was not in great financial shape. Recognising the need for a comprehensive overhaul of not only the way the business was structured but also its culture, Gibson called in people and processes expert Diane Edwards.
One of the first things she noticed was the complete absence of women in almost every aspect of the port’s operations.
 “I am a big believer in that fact that women think differently to men; not better or worse, just differently. And that diversity is key in getting fresh ideas into a business,” says Edwards, who is now a permanent member of the POAL executive as general manager of people and processes and the first woman ever appointed to a top level position. 
Edwards and Gibson began looking at why there were so few women employed by the organisation and the first obvious reason were traditional recruitment and promotion policies; starting as a lasher for five to eight years, before promotion to straddle driver for 20 years, followed by promotion to crane driver.
“We looked at it from the view of did you have to be a lasher to be a good straddle driver? The answer is clearly no. One involves brute strength, the other is driving skills. The same is true for going from straddle driver to cranes. 
“We started looking at recruiting based on skill rather than longevity and hiring people directly as straddle and crane drivers. Lo and behold there were some women who went ‘oh we could probably do that’,” Edwards says.

Eighteen months later POAL employs 23 women stevedores.  “It was not about positive discrimination. It was about removing a barrier and seeing who applied. Many of the girls who applied went through their training really well. We found their performance was often better than the males and their health and safety record was better.” 
Crane drivers need to have certain aptitudes around height perception and counter-swing, which a greater number of women seem to have naturally in comparison with men, adds Edwards. One of the offshoots of that is that the port now employs 19-year-old Johanna Hoffmann, believed to be the youngest portainer crane driver in the world.
As well as shaking up its recruitment policy, POAL has also given its employment contracts a major overhaul, particularly among its salaried admin staff. Instead of dictating how many hours someone works in a week, many work a set number of hours over a three-month period, with a portion that done onsite. Shift workers can opt for flexible working hours making POAL a more friendly workplace for parents with young families.
The port’s efforts in shaking up its recruitment process and pushing for more diversity, have not gone unnoticed. The company was a finalist in the 2014 Equal Employment Opportunities Trust Diversity Awards.  Trust CEO Bev Cassidy-Mackenzie says POAL has become a leading light in how traditionally male dominated industries can – and must – change their thinking.
“Theirs is an industry which has been male-dominated not just for 10 or 15 years but going back for 170 years, so what they’ve achieved is really remarkable.” It’s not just about increasing the number of women, Cassidy-Mackenzie says. The change to skill-based recruitment opens the door to different ethnicities and younger men who may not have coped with the physical demands of lashing.
Moving new staff straight into more skilled and therefore better paid roles doesn’t sit entirely comfortably with the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ). National vice-president Carl Findlay, himself an employee of POAL for 13 years, says the union’s only concern about the new hiring policy is that it be fair for everybody.
“We have no problem whatsoever with the port hiring more women. But they do seem to be fast-tracked into the more skilful positions which is a bit unfortunate for people who have been there much longer. 
“At the end of the day we just want to see all the workers treated equally.”
To date though, Edwards says the addition of more, and often young, women to the port staff has caused few problems aside from a few initial old-schoolers who “felt a little threatened”.
“We’ve spent a bit of time reassuring people that it’s not about replacing men, it’s about levelling the playing field.”
And overall she says there has been a cultural shift within the business – it’s a little less roughneck, and a little more supportive of good ideas.
“I think it’s pulled everybody’s standards up. You see someone working hard, and doing a good job, you tend to do the same,” Edwards says.
The change seems to be paying off, with POAL having recently recorded a record profit.
“I think we’ve established a culture where we reward for good ideas, encourage participation and reward good work; a culture where people want to achieve.”


WOMEN DRIVERS
I think this job really helps you find out who you are,” says 23-year-old stevedore Mareah Rua. “You’re thrown in with all kinds of people from all kinds of different backgrounds driving these massive machines. It’s just kind of grounding, which is great.
“I came from a fashion retail background before this. I just got sick of that environment, it was a bit bitchy. Coming here feels like a bit of a lifesaver.”
Rua and her co-workers Chanae Duzevich, 30 and Hayley Kirwan, 22 have each been working as straddle carrier drivers with Ports of Auckland for about a year. Each had different expectations of what the job would be like; they can all now clearly see that the Port has not only provided them with work, but potentially with a career.
All three have tasks to do outside driving the heavy machinery, whether it’s working in despatch, control or rostering, and say that working from the ground up opens up other opportunities.
“I definitely see a future for myself here,” says Kirwan. “You learn heaps of different skills and there are plenty of different career paths here.”
 Kirwan wasn’t a complete stranger to life on the dock – family members have worked for Ports of Auckland for 35 years – so she decided to apply after graduating from university with a history degree and finding herself “at a bit of a loose end”.
“I think I was the fourth girl they hired. I love it. It’s just such a totally different, cool job. I would definitely recommend it.”
In fact all three of the women have encouraged female friends and relatives to consider “joining up” as they put it and some have taken them up on it. 
“You do have to have a bit of balls to give it a go, I think,” says Rua. “It can be initially intimidating driving these massive machines. But I think if other girls came down here and saw it, they’d see why we love it.”
Men, on the other hand, tend to be a little jealous, laughs Kirwan. “They’re usually really fascinated when you tell them what you do.”
On the job though all three women say there is no gender divide. “The girls aren’t all off on their own or anything, says Duzevich, who left a corporate insurance role for the life of a stevedore. “Everyone just mixes and mingles in together. These guys are like brothers to us.”







European Ports to Promote Female Employment


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The European Sectoral Social Dialogue on Ports ratified two joint papers dealing with “Recommendations on Women’s Employment in the Port Sector” and “Training and Qualifications” on 21 October.
The joint paper Recommendations on Women’s Employment in the Port Sector” expresses social partners’ concerns on the low levels of women employed as port workers, especially taking into consideration the evolution of the nature of port work.
Port employers and employees engaged with this joint paper to guarantee equal opportunities and working conditions for women, promote the sector’s image in terms of female integration, and boost the evolution of recruitment policies aimed at attracting female candidates to the sector.
Women working in ports do not mention the dominating male culture as a problem, but rather the lack of adequate facilities and safety clothes of suitable sizes as the main issues to be tackled in the sector, according to a survey presented by the workers’ delegation .
The work within ports has become less physical, and even in port operations that require more physical jobs, women can perform equally well as men.
The joint paper on “Training and Qualification” aims at starting discussions on training guidelines in order to address current and future training issues in European ports.
These guidelines would take into consideration future training needs of the sector in light of technological and logistical changes and changes in customer demand.
At same time, the aim would be to ensure that guidelines remain relevant to both employers and employees in terms of health and safety as well as competitiveness of the sector.
Press Release; Image: Transnet Port Terminals

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