Australia - Alcoa uses Fair Work legislation to undermine collective bargaining rights

In March 2018 the aluminium producing company Alcoa applied to Australia’s workplace regulator, the Fair Work Commission, to terminate the collective agreement with the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) covering workers at the Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup alumina refineries, the Huntley and Willowdale bauxite mines and Bunbury Port.
Companies can apply for the termination of agreements under Fair Work industrial laws. Without a workplace agreement, Alcoa employees feared they could be forced back onto the base industrial award, leading to large pay reductions and cuts to working conditions.
Despite recording substantial NET profits with the current agreement operating, Alcoa sought a range of reductions to important conditions from the outset of bargaining in December 2016 and then refused to move away from these claims. The company used the threat of termination in an attempt to intimidate the workforce into accepting new working conditions.
The workers voted to take strike action from 8 August 2018. The strike lasted 53 days before Alcoa finally agreed to a minor concession concerning job security. This was not considered sufficient movement by the employees who voted against the proposed agreement in October 2018. On 20 December 2018, the Fair Work Commission agreed to terminate the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) from 7 January 2019, after Alcoa argued some terms were outdated and that it needed to “run the business with flexibility and in the most efficient and productive way”. The AWU pointed out that nothing in the agreement prevented Alcoa achieving those goals as it had recorded an annual net profit of AU$1.1 billion for 2017. Meanwhile the cancellation of the EBA created unacceptable uncertainty for the workers.
In January 2019 the AWU lodged an appeal against the decision to terminate the agreement; the appeal was heard on 25 January 2019. The Full Bench has reserved its decision.

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