16 February, 2012The 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.
AUSTRALIA: The denial is a victory for 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 ruling serves as an invitation for iron ore miners -- and others -- in West Australia's rich Pilbara region to join a union, 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.
More details are available on ICEM website at the following link
http://www.icem.org/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4889-Australian-High-Court-Denies-Rio-Tinto-s-Appeal-to-Evade-Union-Contracts