Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade urges Glencore to include FIFO in redundancy offers

“FIFO workers aren’t second-class citizens, they just don’t spend money in this city.” Two mayors speak on redundancy possibilities. See what they have to say.

Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade said her priority would be to protect as many jobs and families as she could following Glencore's decision to stop its underground copper mining in two years. Picture: Chris Burns

Mount Isa’s mayor said she wanted redundancy packages to be offered across all of Glencore’s local operations, to better protect the financial security of 1000 local families in the city.

But a Glencore spokeswoman said it too early to talk about redundancies and that they would only be a “last resort”.

Last week mining giant announced it would close copper operations at Enterprise, X41, and Black Rock in two years, which was employed mostly by Mount Isa residents and only had a small ratio of FIFO, according to Mayor Danielle Slade.

Cr Slade urged the mining giant to offer redundancies to FIFO workers at the George Fisher mine site about 20 kilometres north of the city, which produces zinc, lead and silver.

This way the local workers in the copper mines and concentrator scheduled for closure in two years would have the opportunity to fill those vacant roles and remain in the city with their families.

She said Glencore was unlikely to offer redundancy packages for at least a year.

Federal MP Bob Katter speaks at a Mount Isa forum concerned about Glencore's decision to close its copper operations. He said government could fight against the decision by demanding remediation for the mine's rehabilitation phase. Picture: Chris Burns

“I don’t want them (Glencore) to offer them to copper, I want them to offer them across the board, especially people who have FIFO,” Cr Slade said.

“FIFO workers aren’t second-class citizens, they just don’t spend money in this city.

“I don’t feel I’m going to leave a 1000 FIFO workers unemployed, there are jobs everywhere.

Traeger MP Robbie Katter explains to a forum of concerned Mount Isa residents why they should be putting pressure on Glencore in the aftermath of its commercial decision to stop its underground copper mines in two years. Picture: Chris Burns

“The FIFO workers are going to be more than fine, there are jobs everywhere right at this moment in Queensland and coming up.”

A Glencore spokeswoman said it had begun a “comprehensive process” of talking to each worker that could be affected.

They would be discussing options such as retention, redeployment, and retraining.

“Redundancies are the last resort and will be offered only when other options have been exhausted,” the spokeswoman said.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said she was waiting for information from Glencore to determine how many of these FIFO workers lived in Townsville, but understood they mostly came from Brisbane.

She understood the position of the Mount Isa mayor to protect local jobs, and agreed there were many upcoming mining projects, including with Vanadium in Julia Creek, 500km west of Townsville, which would have a demand for workers.

“If it was me I’d do exactly the same thing,” Cr Hill said.

“And while the smelter and refinery are still going it’s a good indication that even Glencore believe there is a lot of copper out there.

“I think this will be a bump in the road, we have got two years to sort this out.”

Traeger MP Robbie Katter led a forum for concerned Mount Isa residents wanting to vent.

He said the state government should have stood up to Glencore, and scrutinised the company’s announcement that there was no more copper to be mined in these deposits before offering its $50m relief package.

The government could have done this by examining Glencore’s annual reports and statements, and sought testimony from former mines’ bosses Steve de Kruijff and Matt O’Neill.

The government could also have fought back against Glencore by tightening environmental authorities, he said.

“They are not a miner, they are a commodity trader, they want easy,” Mr Katter said.

“If it’s too hard for you, get lost, get the hell out of Queensland and stop playing around with people’s lives.”

Originally published as Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade urges Glencore to include FIFO in redundancy offers