Tugboat strikes continue across Australia

Tugboat engineers across some of Australia's major ports will continue strike action.

Ports in NSW, QLD, SA, Victoria and WA will be affected by a 24-hour strike on Tuesday as a dispute between the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and tug and salvage company Svitzer continues.

The industrial action, which started last Monday, was launched by the engineers after Svitzer tried to bring them under the same enterprise agreement as deckhands and tugboat skippers.

This would sideline engineer-specific issues and reduce qualification requirements for engineers, says the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers).

Svitzer applied to the Fair Work Commission to have the strike ended on safety concerns but this was rejected because urgent crews remain unaffected by the action.