"I have been working here as a stevedore for a year-and-a-half and thought I had a job for life. "It's pretty scary because I'm paying $610 a week rent on my own and I have two kids and I have no family in Sydney. "I had a housing commission place before I started here, and they told me my job here was fine." She spent Monday protesting the redundancies with other waterfront workers at Port Botany, after they were told they would be paid until August 16 but need not show up for work again. After her six weeks holiday pay ran out, she said she faced being homeless.

"I have to pay the rent, the car bills and food for two boys 16 and 13," she said. "When I got the job, everyone was saying if you work at the wharves, it's a job for life. I thought I won the Lotto when I got the job out here." Hutchison Ports Australia said it was continuing to work through the redundancy process "while understanding this is a difficult time for all concerned". "This has been a difficult decision and follows our announcement six weeks ago that the company is downsizing its service offering to the market." The Maritime Union of Australia claims the treatment of the workers is 'unconscionable' and 'barbaric'. The redundancies, covering 40 per cent of the Hutchison workforce, came days after the union notified the Fair Work Commission of a workplace dispute, claiming the company had breached its enterprise bargaining agreement by not consulting with the union over workplace change. Hutchison had subcontracted half its work to another stevedoring company, the MUA said, adding it believed automation of the workforce was behind the move.

The MUA and Hutchison appeared in the Fair Work Commission on Monday evening. In Parliament on Monday, Employment Minister Eric Abetz came under fire over his response to the sackings. When asked on Friday about the method of sacking, Senator Abetz said he was not aware of the circumstances but that letting workers go via text message may have been an "appropriate" form of communication in the context of a relevant industrial agreement. "I don't know what the culture is in that particular workplace about communication between employee and employers – and if the culture is that employees can text message the boss and they in fact expect the boss to text message them, then that might be an appropriate methodology," he said. "I'm not going to comment on it, other than given whatever the culture might be you want employees and employers to treat each other with respect and due consideration.

When Senator Doug Cameron asked Senator Abetz in Parliament on Monday whether he endorsed the sacking of workers by text messages, Senator Abetz said he had not condoned the method of sacking. "The particular [Enterprise Bargaining Agreement] EBA of which we speak suggests the text messages and emails are the preferred method of communication between the boss and the workers," Senator Abetz said. Senator Cameron then asked whether midnight text messages and emails had "replaced balaclavas and dogs as the preferred method of sacking waterfront workers" - a reference to the 1998 waterside dispute when private security guards wearing balaclavas and accompanied by savage dogs took over Patrick Stevedores' port facilities. Senator Abetz replied: "As I understand the sorry history of Australia's waterfront over many decades the balaclavas were in fact used by certain workers to protect themselves from being identified from retaliatory action by the MUA that has the disgraceful history of even sabotaging our World War II effort and compromising the safety and security of Australian soldiers overseas. "But let's be very clear: I have not condoned in any shape or form those matters to which Senator Cameron seeks to put into my mouth," he said.

Opposition spokesman for employment, Brendan O'Connor said the ALP condemned the sacking of workers by text messages. He said Senator Abetz's comments were "heartless and demonstrative of a government that is out of touch with the challenges facing Australian workers". Maritime Union of Australia assistant national secretary Warren Smith said the union was "shocked but not surprised" by Senator Abetz's comments. Mr Smith said the senator appeared to endorse the "thugs in balaclavas with dogs" raiding of the waterfront. "He obviously has not got workers' interests at heart," he said.