Court Tosses Rio’s Australian Appeal on Safety ‘Right-of-Access’

In Australia on 5 January, the Tasmanian Supreme Court struck a blow to mining and metals giant Rio Tinto’s and delivered a victory to workplace safety and health compliance. The court denied Rio’s appeal to block a trade union from entering a worksite to meet with staff over health and safety issues.

The company had filed the appeal with the state high court to prevent representatives of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) from meeting in a lunch area with aluminium workers at Rio Tinto/Alcan’s Bell Bay smelter. The AWU represents some 600 workers at the 180,000-tonne-per-year aluminium smelter, located in Launceston in northern Tasmania.

In late November 2010, the AWU gave legal notification under the state’s Workplace Health and Safety Act to Rio Tinto of its intent to enter break areas to “discuss health and safety issues with workers during a meal or other break.” Following the company’s refusal, both Tasmania’s Inspector of Workplace Standards and the state’s Solicitor General determined that AWU had that right.

But Rio Tinto appealed the Solicitor General’s decision, only to have Tasmanian Supreme Court Justice Alan Blow deny the company’s appeal. Within minutes of the judge’s decision on 5 January, the AWU was on its way to meet with workers employed in an industry notoriously rife with respiratory hazards.

AWU National Secretary Paul Howes criticised the company for attempting to use its power and money in its litigious way to stop independent health and safety oversight. The AWU “has successfully fought what clearly looks like a conspiracy by (Rio Tinto) to act as if Australian workplace health laws do not exist,” he said.

The case hopefully will become a precedent for other Australian state inspectors to fulfil safety laws by allowing union representatives to discuss safety issues with workers in break room areas.