By Shane Bentley
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission decided on May 26 that union-backed seniority provisions in coal industry awards were no longer allowable. The decision was made under the Workplace Relations Act's requirement that awards be simplified to 20 allowable matters by July 1.
Seniority provisions have required companies to retrench workers on a last-on, first-off basis and give hiring preference to a list of retrenched unionists and workers kept by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
Union-busting companies like Rio Tinto see the ruling as a breakthrough to rid their mines of unionists. Other companies will use these changes as a lever to get concessions from the CFMEU on staffing levels, job demarcation and work practices in return for reinstating the seniority rules.
Senior vice-president of the CFMEU's mining division, Tony Maher, warned coal companies not to use the IRC decision as a green light for victimisation of CFMEU members.
Ninety five per cent of coal industry workers are covered by enterprise agreements and about half of those already include seniority provisions. The CFMEU will step up its push for these provisions to be included in collective agreements.
Seniority provisions protect workers being selected for retrenchment by management because they are union activists and give skilled, unemployed coalminers a chance of re-employment. The CFMEU estimates that 3000 of the 20,000 jobs in the coal industry will be lost over the next year.
"Seniority has for 96 years protected coalminers from victimisation and cronyism. With its removal from the award, the CFMEU will scrutinise every single decision by employers and we will do whatever is necessary to ensure the use of fair and objective criteria when it comes to retrenchments", Maher warned.
In another development, the Employment Advocate, the authority in charge of non-union wage agreements, has started proceedings in the AIRC to have union preference of employment clauses removed from all enterprise agreements.