Coal & Allied

Rio Tinto PLC
31 May 2002


   Coal & Allied and CFMEU settle former employee retrenchment court actions


Coal & Allied has reached agreement on the terms for settlement of the long
running actions before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission which
followed the retrenchment of 190 employees at the former Hunter Valley # 1 and
Mount Thorley mines in 1998 and 1999.



At a meeting today the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union presented the
terms of the settlement to the former employees, who have voted to accept the
offer.  For the settlement to be finalised, the former employees will be
required to complete individual deeds of settlement and withdraw their claims
before the AIRC.



While the company has agreed not to disclose individual settlement amounts, the
general terms are as follows:



For full and final settlement of these claims, Coal & Allied will provide a
total payment of approximately $25 million to be shared among the former
employees according to a range of criteria agreed with the union. In return, the
employees will agree not to pursue their claims for reinstatement by the
company.  The company has made provision for these cases in its reported results
and the settlement with not materially affect the company's performance going
forward.



No people will be reinstated, however currently Coal & Allied has approximately
20 mineworker jobs available and has agreed that these retrenched employees will
be given the opportunity to apply for those positions through a company
recruitment process. Any successful applicants will commence as new probationary
employees, without continuity of service, and participate in an induction and
retraining program.



Coal & Allied Managing Director, Mr Gary Goldberg, said,' We consider this to be
a very practical commercial settlement of a legal process that to date has
involved only 16 of the 190 applicants, with no conclusion reached.



'These cases are a hangover from four years ago and many more years of
litigation were likely before the entire matter would have been dealt with.  It
deals sensibly with the need to get the whole dispute behind all of us in the
Hunter Valley.



'Since 1997 we have introduced world competitive work practices to Coal & Allied
that were previously unthinkable and regarded as impossible.



'Specifically we have reformed recruitment practices, limitations on the use of
contractors, demarcation barriers and the restrictive work practices that
existed throughout our business.



'These changes are embedded in our current collective agreements and are an
integral part of the way we work at Coal & Allied.  They provide an ideal
platform for future changes we will need to remain globally competitive,'
concluded Mr Goldberg.

Text



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LONDON                                             AUSTRALIA

Media Relations                                    Media Relations
Lisa Cullimore                                     Ian Head
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