Rio Tinto airs concerns on trivial labour gripes by Aussie unions

Aggressive behavior being displayed by labour unions could soon hurt the overall economic situation in Western Australia, accord-ing to Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese.

Albanese has lamented that despite the good relationship that exists between Rio Tinto management and its employees, militancy among the ranks of labour leaders appears to be taking a foothold.

He expressed alarm too that many of their grievances seem to take root on 'trivial issues', which he noted is expected as Rio Tinto workers, and mining employees in West Australia, are one of the best paid in the world.

Even as commodities outlook are far from being rosy and mining productivity suffers decline, Albanese said on Sunday that Rio Tinto is still able to deliver attractive salary packages for its Australian operation.

In fact, he stressed, the company's Australian workforce enjoys considerable edge from their American counterpart by enjoying as much as twice the pay grade.


"Our average pay in Australia is multiple times that of any other country in the world, even in the US we're probably paying twice as much for the same worker in Australia as we are in the US without necessarily higher productivity,"

Albanese was reported by The West Australian as saying.

Despite that environment, the Rio Tinto chief called into attention recent labour unions' spirited campaigns to extract whatever they could get from businesses operating in Western Australia.

Recent events showed union groups demanding for more concessions from firms such as Chevron and Woodside, with Rio Tinto agreeing into a three-year CBA with its workers earlier in August.

Albanese said that the current union behaviour deserves a second look from authorities.

"I think that we have a risk in Australia that the aggressive industrial relations agenda against the companies could further reduce productivity in an environment of very high wages," Albanese told ABC on Sunday.

"I fear a situation where if productivity drops off over the next couple of years for any reason, it could be because of the aggressive labour," he added.

Rio Tinto's sentiments echoed the warnings aired last week by WA Premier Colin Barnett, who said that aggressive labour union campaigns could eventually rattle firms doing and planning to do business in the region.

He allowed that majority of the industrial action threats coming from these groups were mostly based on the non-essentials.

And to consider that "we are not talking about lowly paid workers or people in poor (work) conditions here," Barnett admitted.