Rushed Christmas consultation cost Holcim, but its seafarers' injunction didn't survive either
Employment Relations Authority member Nicola Craig ruled on 8 July 2026 that Holcim failed to consult seafarers before switching cement transport to road and rail.
Holcim (New Zealand) Ltd operated the MV Buffalo, which carried company cement around the New Zealand coast from a base in Timaru. Holcim agreed to sell the ship, with the sale due to complete on 28 December 2025, and explored replacing it through an arrangement involving Swiss company Nova Marine Carriers SA and Maltese firm Alton Shipping Ltd. That plan depended on a government exemption allowing a foreign flagged vessel to carry coastal cargo with a foreign crew, which the Minister declined around 9 December 2025.
On 28 November 2025, Holcim told the Buffalo's crew their roles were being disestablished, with redundancy due to take effect on 28 December 2025. The Maritime Union of New Zealand and six seafarers, including a union branch official, won an interim injunction from the Authority halting their redundancies while the wider dispute proceeded.
After the exemption was declined, Holcim told crew on Christmas Eve it was consulting on a new plan combining road and rail transport with a bulk carrier and a shore based mobile unloader. The consultation period ran from 24 to 31 December 2025, spanning the Christmas and New Year holidays, with the feedback deadline extended to 5 January 2026. Holcim confirmed the plan on 9 January 2026 and made redundant those crew members not covered by the injunction, effective 14 January 2026.
Craig found Holcim had already failed in its duty to consult before that point, since it had not told the union it was struggling to reach terms with Nova Marine over a replacement vessel before publicly announcing the road and rail move. She noted consultation must meet the standard set by the Employment Court, which has said consultation "is to be a reality, not a charade." Craig found the Christmas period consultation was also inadequate, concluding it was conducted without Holcim keeping an open mind, and that the company breached both its statutory good faith obligations and clause 39 of its collective agreement with the union, which requires it to work to protect members from disadvantage.
The union separately argued some seafarers had received redundancy notice while on leave, contrary to the collective agreement's notice provisions. Craig rejected this, finding the agreement's Time Off entitlement is distinct from leave for notice purposes, so Holcim's notices were validly given.
Holcim, which sought to discharge the remaining interim injunction, argued it had become a holding measure that should give way to a final outcome, with any remedy for the crew better addressed through damages than continued reinstatement. Craig agreed, pointing to the months that had passed without a replacement vessel arriving and to a New Zealand shipping venture, NACC Oceania Ltd, ending talks with the unions without reaching a commercial agreement with Holcim. She discharged the interim injunction, concluding it was "futile for the interim injunction to be made permanent." Holcim's obligation to comply with its good faith and clause 39 duties continues for as long as the remaining seafarers stay employed by the company, with costs on the case reserved.
