The Australian Workers Union has announced its intention to appeal the Fair Work Commission’s decision to terminate the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement for their members working at Alcoa sites across WA.
The company and union have been in a long-running standoff in relation to a new agreement for their employees at facilities in Pinjarra, Willowdale, Huntly, Kwinana and Wagerup.
This led to a 52-day AWU strike last year, with workers walking off the job to undertake industrial action in August and September.
Alcoa filed with the Fair Work Commission to have the workers’ EBA terminated, with deputy president Abbey Beaumont announcing she had sided with the company over the union just days before Christmas.
As such, the agreement is set to be terminated on January 7 – but the AWU has announced it will challenge the decision.
“We’ll be arguing that deputy president Beaumont wrongly relied on the subjective evidence of Alcoa’s managers instead of its own audited financial results,” AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said.
“The deputy president accepted Alcoa was restricted from operating efficiently, productively and competitively, because three managers complained about disputes that had arisen with the AWU about the operation of the agreement.
“The evidence of these managers was completely at odds with the objective financial information, relied on by the AWU, which clearly demonstrates Alcoa has made monumental profits.
“These profits could not have been achieved if Alcoa was genuinely restricted by the terms of the current agreement with its workers.”
AWU WA branch acting secretary Brad Gandy said the FWC was not just erroneous, but heartless.
“To plunge 1,500 hardworking men and women into uncertainty and chaos just days before Christmas is disgraceful and completely uncalled for,” he said.
“The enterprise agreement in question contains longstanding, sensible, and reasonable conditions that have been refined for many years.
“This is an enterprise agreement that saw Alcoa through the global financial crisis and helped it remain extremely profitable. The company booked an annual net profit figure of $1.1 billion for 2017.”