Published: 28 Mar 2018
A replacement enterprise agreement at the Oaky North Mine has been reached with in excess of 70 per cent of employees accepting the agreement following a ballot that concluded on Tuesday 27 March 2018.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Division Queensland District President Stephen Smyth said “The replacement agreement reached means that the dispute with Glencore has concluded. Employees have returned to work following what has been a significant and protracted dispute.
“The replacement enterprise agreement was voted up following the end of a protracted lockout. During the course of the dispute, multinational Glencore tried every trick in the broken book to gut the employees’ terms and conditions.
“This included an unreasonable and unconscionable lockout of workers in excess of 200 days, an attempt to terminate the previous enterprise agreement under broken laws, and other unfair tactics in breach of the good faith bargaining requirements.
“The employees at Oaky North have seen off every unfair tactic utilised by Glencore. For over 200 days they have endured to ensure Glencore’s attempts to gut their terms and conditions were unsuccessful. “As a result of standing firm, the employees have been able to retain the vast majority of their terms and conditions including rights to arbitration, housing subsidies, and bonus arrangements. They refused to let Glencore walk all over them and that is a massive achievement in response to the aggressive and unjustifiable actions of one of the largest multinational around.
“The laws are clearly broken and need to change. Glencore’s actions were so disproportionate as to be absurd. The CFMEU will be vigorously pursuing changes to bring some balance back to Australia’s industrial relations system. Clearly the rules need to change.
“The employees at Oaky North and the CFMEU are incredibly grateful for the support received and solidarity of other Unions and the public during the course of this dispute,” said Mr Smyth.