Semester Two 2012
Sydney Campus
Written Submission
Student: Anqi DENG
ID:16602081
Tutor: Sunaina Gowan
Word counts:1195
Ms. D. Anqi
Director of Corporate Communications
BHP Billiton Limited
GPO Box 2012
180 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
September 1, 2012
Ms. Sunaina Gowan
Executive of the Australasian Local Network
PO Box 111
Sydney NSW 2000
Dear Ms. Sunaina Gowan,
BHP Billiton is world’s largest producers of major metals, including copper, iron ore, manganese and so on. We were established on Australia and provide employment positions for 60,000 Australian employees (BHP Billiton 2012). In July 2003, BHP Billiton participated in Global Compact and will continue to progressively implement with the compact (Global Compact 2012).
This letter is going to introduce you the recommendations of our company to Local Networks to encourage closely compliance with the following two Global Compact Principles:
Principle 3: "Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining." (The Ten Principles/ Principle 3 2012).
Principle 8: "Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility." (The Ten Principles/ Principle 8 2012).
Our practices
We have been accused of breaching Principle 3 of the Global Compact. In 2011, our subsidiary company called Illawarra Coal ineffectively bargain with employees for providing collectively agreement instead of individual agreement. This cause United Nation and the union called APESMA doubted that we did not comply with the Compact, which the similar issue also happened in 2003. In regard of this perspective, Rio Tinto could be a role model of us (APESMA 2012). “The way we work” is an employment policy that Rio Tinto proposed to ensure that all of the employees could choose whether or not t to join any type of union consistent with Australian labour laws. Besides,