Australia

Campaign to make James Hardie face responsibilities
Asbestos is a killer. It causes asbestosis, a lung disease that leads to death, and is linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer only caused by inhalation of asbestos fibres that attack the lung lining and causes death within six to 12 months of diagnosis, but can take up to 40 years before developing into the disease.

Australia has the highest recorded rate of mesothelioma with 7,500 cases by 2003 (though many Asian countries that have high asbestos usage record no cases). The number of cases is expected to rise to 18,000 by 2020.

For every case of mesothelioma there are two more cases of fatal asbestos-related lung diseases, meaning there will be a total of 58,000 lung diseases caused by asbestos by 2020.

James Hardie was Australia’s biggest manufacturer of products containing asbestos. Though the dangers of breathing asbestos fibres have been known since the 1930s, James Hardie only placed warnings on his products in 1978, and stopped production in 1982.

In early 2001 James Hardie established the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation to pay compensation to asbestos victims, and eight months later the company transferred US$1.3 billion from Australia to Holland and founded a parent company there; there is no legal mechanism for Australian court decisions to be enforced in Holland.

In March 2003 James Hardie legally separated the Australian subsidiary from the rest of the business. This protected the Dutch parent company from liabilities and cut liabilities from Australian creditors and asbestos claimants.

In 2004 an enquiry revealed that James Hardie had under-financed the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation by US$1.4 billion.

After victims of James Hardie’s Australian business, trade unions, and asbestos support groups launched a campaign to bring James Hardie to justice, labour groups signed a non-binding Heads of Agreement with James Hardie on 21 December. The agreement is expected to be followed up by a legally-binding Principal Agreement in mid-2005, which among other provisions will establish a compensation fund for James Hardie’s asbestos victims with a minimum term funding arrangement of 40 years.

International Metalworkers Federation, 14 September 2004; Australian Council of Trade Unions bulletin, 21 December 2004

Victory for Tasmanian meat workers
The Supreme Court in Hobart turned down the employers’ appeal over Tasmania’s longest industrial dispute (182 days) on 7 December. The ruling, which supports the Tasmanian Industrial Commission’s 2003 decision on the dispute, means victory for 17 meat workers at the Blue Ribbon plant in Launceston who were locked out of the factory in April 2003 for refusing to sign contracts with labour-hire agency Newemploy that would have removed the workers from Australia’s award system.

Grant Courtney, the Meat Workers Union’s secretary said, “It’s a historic decision for workers in Tasmania as far as we can see … What the full bench of the Supreme Court has done today is vindicated the Industrial Relations Commission’s decision back in October 2003. What it means is that they can go back to work.”

In April 2004, Newemploy went into liquidation and its unspecified number of workers was awarded A$500,000.

Hobart Mercury, 8 December 2004