MDHC were not only in breach of employment contracts but in breach of political legislation, he told a House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry.
Port of Liverpool employers had denied any threat of casualisation when questioned by members of the Education and Employment Sub-Committee.
Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) and Torside Limited were attending the 21 May inquiry into the sacking of the 500 dockers.
The Shop Stewards' Committee submitted a 25-page report with 63 supporting documents proving that casualisation is at the heart of the dispute.
Committee members, Jimmy Nolan, Mike Carden, Terry Teague and Jimmy Davies represented the dockers.
Answering a question on casualisation Mike Carden said:
'I don't think there is any problem with the definition of casual labour. It is simply labour that is employed from time to time when work is available and the individual is only paid for that.'
He explained that Torside and MDHC representatives failed to develop the realities of the situation.
In August 1995 the 80 Torside dockers had an official ballot over the declared intention of the company to get rid of 20 and offer them casual employment.
Torside Limited were already employing approximately 20-30 casuals in the sense that these workers were paid only 20 hours.
'Practically all dock work in Birkenhead is casual,' said Mike. 'When there is no ship in, there are no dock workers. When a ship comes in there are dock workers.'
'The crux of our problem is whether we can have a legal ballot or not have a legal ballot, or who is casual and who is not and how clean are the dock eompany's hands',
He told the Sub Committee the problem was that the dock company has total control over everything that happens in the port. 'They have shares in so many companies.'
He gave Birkenhead companies, Stanton Grove and Birkenhead Stevedores as examples - both employ casual labour.
'The directors of Birkenhead Stevedores are also senior management, former management or even directors of MDHC'.
Mike referred to the list of companies, fully owned, part owned or contracted by MDHC, included in the dockers' submission.
He explained that MDHC use Drake Port Serviees and PDP Services Limited to replace the sacked 500 dockers with casual labour.
'In the initial weeks of this dispute when Drake was used they were essentially casual and essentially being brought in from the Medway port.It is disingenuous for MDHC to suggest for one minute that the labour in the Medway ports, acquired by MDHC in 1993, is in any sense permanent labour.
It is all casual labour. This was part of the original problem regarding the actual acquisition and the imposition of contracts at the Medway port.
It is very similar to the situation we found ourselves in with the imposition of the contracts at the Seaforth Container Base in 1994.
We were given 90 days' notice, our jobs were advertised in the newspaper - not because we were on strike, not because we were in dispute, but for no other reason than we would not agree in negotiations with the employers regarding
- annualised hours,
- wage reductional OE lengthening the working
- abolition of the week-end and
- being given time off when it suited the employer
We felt this was casualisation of our own labour practices.
Rest assured that the picture we are attempting to paint is not one in which the MDHC can sit back and say: "That's not me!". They are the main port authority.
They control everything that goes into that port and in that powerful position they can decide that the whole of Birkenhead is casual and then more and more of the port of Liverpool is casualised.
That has been our fear since 1989 (when the government abolished the National Dock Labour Scheme)
You do not get almost 500 people giving up their livelihoods, many with 30 or 40 years' service; giving up their pension rights; giving up everything they have worked for and their fathers before them. Human beings do not give that up in any bizarre sense.
I am on the senior committee of our union. got a bigger constituency than many MPs have.
My constituency consists of 130,000-odd members in the whole of the North-West Region. I stand for election every two years, so I am certain elected.
Jimmy Nolan, Terry Teague and Jimmy Davies are all members of senior constitutional committees of our union
MDHC, with an industrial relations record that would shame even the most backward employer, has not attempted in all the years, even going back to before 1989, to solve their industrial relations problems.
I have been a shop steward for 20 years and I believe the reason why they did that was for political and economic reasons and for their own advancement.
It suited them to have an element of conflict permeating the whole of the ports so they could achieve their ultimate goal.
I believe when a Torside situation unfolded they saw their opportunity, took it, and disgracefully sacked 500 workers.'
Jimmy Nolan told the inquiry the current dispute was about the failure to deliver the guarantees given by Employment Secretary Norman Fowler in the debate that took place on the abolition of the National Dock Labour Scheme [in 1989].
'Hansard reports of the [abolition] Bill going through Parliament show Norman Fowler on quite a number of occasions gave guarantees that
Jimmy stated clearly to the Sub-Committee that since dockworkers have been employed by MDHC and particularly since 1993 they have seen a reduction in their pension rights.
Referring to the scab labour contracted by MDHC through Drake Port Services and PDP Services, Jimmy said:
'You can rest assured that they do not pay pension contributions and the workers are not entitled to pension benefits and sick pay.''So I would say that MDHC are in breach of Norman Fowler's guarantees.'
'Casual work operates in the ports. The National Doek Labour Scheme which protected dockers' jobs, wages and onditions was abolished in 1989 with guarantees that there would be no return to casual, part-time labour, but immediately upon abolition, casualisation of port work commenced.'
