BMA to reinstate two workers sacked over mobile phone breach
Mining giant BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) may be forced to review one of its new safety policies at one of its Queensland mines following an order from the Fair Work Commission last week to reinstate two dismissed employees, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The two men were employed as operators at the Goonyella Riverside Mine when their contracts were terminated in February for breaches of the mine’s Mobile Electronic Device Procedure, which prohibits employees from carrying mobile devices onto the worksite.
Employee Luke Faulkner’s breach was discovered when he used his phone while onsite to post a comment to Facebook and was reported to management by another employee with whom he was friends on Facebook.
China's powerful economic presence begins to fade
Shadow banking, ghost cities, slumping property prices, a manufacturing slowdown and debt defaults are just some of the headwinds that threaten the Chinese economy, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Data released last week from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Chinese home prices fell for the seventh consecutive month in November.
Over the past 12 months, new home prices slumped 3.7%.
China buys the majority of the world’s iron ore, with the country estimated to have imported a record 938 million tonnes this year.
However, this has also created high stock inventories which peaked at 106Mt in June and have only come down marginally since, according to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics.
World’s first LNG cargo set for export from Curtis Island
The historic first shipment of liquefied natural gas is just days away from leaving Queensland after a giant tanker finally docked at Curtis Island, just off Gladstone, on Boxing Day, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The Methane Rita Andrea will begin loading Queensland’s first cargo of LNG from BC Group’s $25 billion Queensland Curtis LNG project, the first project in the world to produce LNG for export from coal seams rather than conventional gasfields.
