The Employers Federation in Papua New Guinea is going to court over strike action by stevedores at Port Moresby and Lae which has ground work at the ports to a halt.
The federation's president, John Jeffrey, says they told the stevedores that negotiations will resume only when they went back to work but they've refused to do that.
Mr Jeffrey says he's instructed the lawyers to go to court today.
"We are going to go to the courts and see whether we are able to have an injunction taken out and get the union back to work and so we can continue on through the industrial relations machinery up here, which of course enables the union to go through arbitration process,and then by pass the arbitration process, and go straight on to strike."
Mr Jeffrey says he will also be asking why the Industrial Registrar allowed the Maritime Workers Industrial Union, which represents the stevedores, to hold a vote on a strike without informing the federation.
