Chile Escondida copper mine wins labor appeal

SANTIAGO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Chile's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, has won an appeal it filed in December against a government directive requiring it to hire hundreds of subcontracted workers on a permanent basis, a court said on Thursday.

The labor directive ordered Escondida, majority-owned by the world's largest diversified mining company BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), to hire 767 subcontract workers.

The government may appeal the Antofagasta court's decision to the supreme court.

Government-owned company Codelco, the world's largest copper miner, filed six appeals against the government edict. It won in the first instance in four of those decisions.

It lost a decision at its smallest mine and another is pending.

The labor directive would have forced Codelco to hire nearly 5,000 subcontracted workers.

Chile is the world's leading producer of copper, which accounts for over half of its exports. (Reporting by Lisa Yulkowski; Editing by Marguerita Choy)