Mining union ramps up Same Job Same Pay fight for coal workers

The fight to squash significant pay differences between permanent and contractor coal miners will soon engulf your television screens, newspapers and social media with unions vowing to end a ‘rort’ hitting more than 50% of workers.

The fight to squash significant pay differences between permanent and contractor coal miners will soon engulf your television screens, newspapers and social media.

The Mining and Energy Union has vowed to battle in the public arena what it says are fear mongering tactics from mining companies.

The union, which is unveiling its campaign in Canberra on Wednesday, says it will not back down until the federal government ratifies the proposed Same Job Same Pay Laws.

The pay disparity between permanent mining employees and labour hire contractors has plagued the sector for decades with income differences up to $50,000 a year.

MEU general secretary Grahame Kelly said the Same Job Same Pay laws would end the “rort” of mining companies using labour hire to get around having to pay the conditions and wages offered to permanent employees as negotiated under Enterprise Agreements.

MEU general secretary Grahame Kelly Grahame Kelly addresses the 1200-strong crowd at the Moranbah Miners' Memorial.

“Mining companies are notorious for throwing their weight around when governments propose changes requiring them to act in the community’s best interests,” Mr Kelly said.

While many coal mine workers are hesitant to speak out in fear of retribution, Central Queensland miner Brodie Allen says he is joining the union’s campaign launch in Canberra to make politicians aware of how the mining giants use “loopholes” to treat labour hire contractors as “second class citizens”.

Central Queensland miner Brodie Allen is taking the fight for Same Job, Same Pay to Canberra. Picture: Contributed

“Labor hire workers are brought onto mine sites to do the work cheaper, there’s no other reason,” Mr Allen said.

“At my mine site, permanent coal mine workers have recently been given decent pay rises in their Enterprise Agreement to recognise cost of living increases.

“We don’t get anything because they say we have to compete on the market.”

The 2021 Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry found the rate of directly-employed mineworkers had plummeted from 94 per cent in 1996 to between 45 to 48 per cent in 2017, with reports it has fallen further still.

The Labor government intends to legislate the Same Job, Same Pay measure in the 2023 Spring sitting of parliament.

Under the guiding principles, mining companies would still be able to access labour hire “for genuine work surges and short-term needs” but contractors “should be paid at least the same as directly engaged employees doing the same work”.

ABS data shows permanent miners earned a median wage of $2500 a week in 2022 while casuals earned $2171.

A BMA permanent employee at the Daunia mine. Picture: Supplied

Mining giant BHP has publicly challenged the proposed laws which it says could cost jobs by adding $1.3bn each year to its wages bill.

It follows workers at four of its Bowen Basin Coal mines – including at Goonyella Riverside, Saraji, Peak Downs and Blackwater – voting in favour of a new Enterprise Agreement in December last year.

The agreement stipulated that BHP must: hire 105 new EA positions across the four mines within 12 months; ensure EA numbers would not fall below current levels at each mine; and provide one-for-one replacement of EA employees within the same mine and work area.

MEU Queensland president Stephen Smyth said the “long and tough” negotiations had ensured BHP could not further cut permanent jobs and swap them out with labour hire.