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13 February, 2012
The Australian High Court last week refused to hear an appeal by Rio Tinto over the company’s illegal non-union collective agreements imposed on iron ore miners in West Australia. The denial is a victory for ICEM affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), which took the case forward, and a victory for legitimate collective bargaining rights.
It also stands as a rebuke to Rio Tinto in its efforts to avoid 2009 changes in Australian labour law.
The 10 February ruling not to hear Rio’s appeal to a 25 July 2011 determination by the full bench of the country’s Federal Court means Rio’s sham labour agreement from July 2008 is not a genuine collective agreement. (See ICEM report on Federal Court decision from 1 August 2011.)
It also serves as an invitation for iron ore miners – and others – in West Australia’s rich Pilbara region to take membership in the CFMEU, with the aim to negotiate real enterprise labour agreements through the union. The High Court ruling will also negate other mining firms such as BHP Billiton, which also converted individual work agreements into non-union labour agreements that were intended to keep trade unions away from workers and workers without a union voice.
In Rio Tinto’s case, it brought ten new hires of its Pilbara Iron Company Pty. Ltd. subsidiary into a bogus Pilbara Iron Employee Agreement for a five-year duration that was meant to include all other new hires during that time. The ploy was done to avoid changes in law that took effect with the July 2009 effective date of the Fair Work Australia law.
Some 20 such delusionary labour agreements are said to have been put in place to avoid the Fair Work law, and Rio Tinto’s legal failure last week is expected to strike the ones that are still in effect null and void.
“Rio Tinto made a cynical attempt to circumvent their obligations under the Fair Work laws,” said CFMEU Mining General Secretary Andrew Vickers. “It has tried to dodge its obligation to recognise the rights of its workers to genuinely collectively bargain for future pay increases and improved conditions.
“It has been a long legal battle, but it’s been worth it to safeguard the rights of our members in the Pilbara and demonstrate that Rio Tinto is not above the law,” added Vickers.