Employment Relationship Issues in Glencore's Oaky North Mine

This article discusses the employment relationship issues faced by Glencore's Oaky North Mine due to the new employee agreement. The lack of safety measures, low pay scale, and conflicts between the union and management have led to protests and lockouts. The article also explores the implications of these issues on the social, economical, legal, political, and ethical environment.

Running head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
Employment Relationship Issues
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
Question 1
Glencore's Oaky North Mine is located in central Queensland, Australia. The mine
consists of a coal presentation plant and two underground operations plant. Glencore’s Oaky
North mine is facing some tough challenges recently. The worker of the Glencore Oaky North
mine is protesting for having a work environment that is safer for their daily operations (Craig et
al., 2016). According to the worker’s, Glencore is trying to bring a new agreement that is
favoring a cheaper, contract labor. The dispute has caused due to casualising the employees.
The protest is going for over 88 days and the 190 workers are involved in this protest
(Mcllroy, 2016). On May 10th, the workers of the organisation started this protest and on June 9th
Glencore decided to lockout their employee without pay giving them the reason that protest is
affecting the man-hours. Glencore continued its production by using the contractors in their
organisation. The protest is not only affecting the workers and the organisation but it is also
affecting the families of the workers. The main issue of the organisation is the lack of
communication between the employee and the organisation (Gallois & Giles, 2015). Glencore
has stated that the organization is trying to create a flexible, modern and streamlined EA to have
a modern working environment. A meeting was also held between the union representatives and
the Glencore’s representation but according to Mr.Brodsky, Queensland District Vice President
of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Mining and Energy Division,
two sides clearly disagreed about the revised remuneration that Glencore have offered (Industry,
2015). He also added that they mainly disagreed on three issues, dispute procedure, workplace
representation, severance and retrenchment (Marsden, 2013). No further dates have been selected
for meeting but they have agreed for email communication.

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Unions are groups of workers aims at improving the working condition as well as to
promote the common needs of the workers (Kaufman & Bennett, 2017). The issue is mainly
related to safety and pay scale of the union. The new enterprise agreement contains some of the
clause that the unions are not satisfied. Mining plants are very dangerous and proper safety
guidelinesare not maintained in Glencore’s mine. There are a number of cases where accidents
happened due to the lack of safety measures taken by the organization (Akgun, 2015). This will
also affect the shareholder’s of Glencore's Oaky North Mine. If the pay scale of the employee is
low then the employee will not show any interest on the organization. The union members are
protesting against the lack of safety measures taken by the organization. The organization should
emphasize more on the safety of the workers, unsafe workplace will not only harm the worker’s
but it will also decrease the production of the worker (Geng & Saleh, 2015).
Unitarism is a theory that follows a centralized and unified system (Cullinane & Dundon,
2014). Unitarism describes that every workplace should be integrated and at the same time, it
should have harmonious entity that exists for common goal. In unitarism the main role of the
management is to provide an effective leadership and communication. In a unitarised
organization, the workers need to be loyal towards their organization as well as to their managers
to achieve a common goal in the organization. In Glencore, the unitarism is lacking the
leadership of the management is weak and the employees are not loyal to the organization.
Question 2
Glencore's Oaky North Mine is facing many issues recently and all these issues were
created by the new changes in the employee agreement. Unions are not happy with the new
changes that the management is bringing in the organization. Glencore's Oaky North Mine wants

3EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
to create a flexible and modern agreement that will help them to achieve a modern work
environment, but according to the worker’s the organization is favoring a cheaper, contract labor.
The dispute is happening due to casualising the employees. New employee agreement has also
increased the attrition rate of the organization. More than 190 employees have been protesting
for about 88 days. The initial negotiation regarding the agreement started on May 10 and on June
9, Glencore decided to lockout the employees without any pay. Glencore stated that they have
taken this step because protesting was costing them a lot of time. The dispute took this massive
image due to the following result:
 Glencore management rejected the proposal of the workers for two years with a 0%
increase in pay scale.
 Glencore tried to stop the workers from legal and peaceful meeting at the front gate of
the mines and forced them to reinstate the picket line in the magistrate’s court.
 The organization rejected 50% working condition that was in the agreement, which was
voted by 99% of the workers of Gelncore Okay mine.
The employee relationship is one of the vital factors in the management. A good
employee relationship results in better workplace environment for the worker. The employee
relationship will help in greater production and will help in improving the relationship between
the employee and the management, which will decrease the level of conflict between the
employee and the management. Employee relationship is based on understanding the problem of
the employee and solving those problems accordingly, which helps in retaining the employee in
the organization. The employee relationship in Glencore is not so good between the unions and
the management. The unions are not very happy with the new employee agreement. The new
employee agreement failed to meet the proper requirements of increasing pay scale, good

4EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
working environment and standard safety measures. According to reports Glencore’s revenue
have increased from 1.77 billion US dollar to 3.1billion US dollar in the last year but there has
been no rise in the pay scale of the employee.
Question 3
The issue that Glencore is facing can have a huge effect in the Organization’s operation.
This will affect the employee relationship in the following ways:
 Conflict: The issue that raised in Glencore will increase conflicts between the union and
the management, which will decrease the time of operation and eventually will lead to
decrease in production. This will adversely affect the growth of the organization.
Glencore will lose a lot of market share if the issue is not solved quickly. This will also
raise question on the management of Glencore.
 Increase labor turnover: It will increase the labor turnover ratio. Labor is described as the
proportion of the employee or worker’s that leave the organization in a particular year.
Glencore’s new employee agreement will result in increased labor turnover (Bothma &
Roodt, 2013).
The issues will have following implication on the social, economical, legal, and political and
ethical.

5EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
Social: The issue will result into increased labor turnover that means a lot of employee
either will get a job or will be unemployed. Most of the employee will look for a new job.
This will increase the demand for workers in the market to replace the workers who are
leaving the organization (Berkman et al., 2014).
Economic: This economy is highly dependent on the revenue earned from the coalmines in
Australia. The lockout by the Glencore will result in to low revenue collection and it will
decrease the production of the organization. This will hugely affect the financial growth of the
county. Glencore is one of the largest coalmines in Australia and is one of the main sources of
revenue in the Australian economy. Loss in the Glencore’s Oaky North coalmine will also affect
the Australian economy.
Legal: This will change many rules and regulations of how the organization works. This will
affect the employee’s safety guidelines and will affect many other laws related to the coalmine.
Political: This will affect the present political body to change its rules and bring some new rules
so that the loss in the coalmine does not affect the economy. The political leaders have to bring
proper solution so that the issue can be minimized (Plata et al., 2014).
Ethical: This will also affect the ethics of the environment. The employee will not be more
focused on the environment goals (Shahis & Zain, 2018). The employee will not be motivated
towards working hard and this will affect the production of the company (Ferrell & Fraedrich,
2015).
Question 4:
Glencore Oaky mine is under huge problem due to the protest by the Unions of the
coalmine. Glencore has decided to lockout due to the wastage of man-hour. The dispute

6EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
happened in the organization due to some certain reasons. The new employment agreement does
not fulfill the demands of the employee. Glencore have not increased their pay, which was
applied by the union members for two years. The safety standards of the Glencore coalmine are
not up to the mark. The working environment of the Glencore coal mine is also not suitable for
the workers. These have raised a protest against the Glencore Oaky coalmine. 190 men have
been lockout for 88 days, which is not only affecting the organization but it also affecting the
families of the workers. These are also having a huge impact in the social, economical, legal, and
political environment. Being one of the most important coalmine in the country and also one of
the largest provider of employment in Australia, Glencore coal mine should work on solving the
issues with the unions. Glencore should consider the needs of the union and bring some new
agreements, which will also satisfy the needs of the unions. They should consider the pay scale
as Glencore has a increased its revenue significantly (Capital, 2016). The communication
between the employee and the management should be improved and the management should
clear out all the new changes in the employee agreement. If the organization is trying to bring
change and try to apply modernize its operations then they should properly discuss with the
union head so that it reduces the conflict between the workers and the management.

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