5 July, 2011The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) won a definitive judgment from Fair Work Australia on 24 June that grants the union right of entry to lunch rooms at Rio Tinto's Alcan aluminium smelter in Bell Bay, Tasmania. The ruling ends months of legal wrangling and should serve as a precedent against employers from blocking legitimate union access to workers on job sites.
AUSTRALIA: On 1 July, marking the second anniversary of the Fair Work Act of 2009, which makes such access legitimate, AWU National Secretary Paul Howes and three AWU organizers triumphantly met with AWU members in lunch rooms at Alcan's Bell Bay smelter, breaking Rio Tinto's claim that such meetings had to in administrative areas, generally parts of worksites where surveillance and management intimidation is greater.
The 550-worker Alcan smelter has been a test case in Australia over right of entry under a balanced Fair Work Act, a law that reversed many of the management rights provisions in the former Conservative government's WorkChoices Act. It also stands as a major crossing over a threshold that will lead to full enterprise bargaining between AWU and Alcan.
The AWU, which counts a majority of Alcan workers at Bell Bay as members, also used this Fair Work Australia decision to re-boot an advertising campaign aimed at recruitment of non-union Rio workers to the union fold.
The AWU said it would use the decision to meet union members in similar surroundings at Alcan worksites in Gladstone (Boyne Island) and Yarwun, Queensland.
Fair Work Australia's ruling also rejected Alcan's claim that the meal rooms closer to work areas were too small for such lawful meetings under the Fair Work Act and that worker-union discussions would disrupt other workers in the break areas.
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary Jeff Lawrence said the Bell Bay decision "sends a positive message to other employers that they must respect fundamental workers' rights to collective bargaining and union membership."
More information on ICEM website http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4530-Australia:-AWU-Wins-Correct-Access-to-Rio-Tinto-s-Alcan-Smelter here.