Barnaby Joyce backs union push over casual labour

A committee chaired by Barnaby Joyce has backed a union push to allow casual miners to convert to permanent jobs.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Kym Smith

A Coalition-majority committee chaired by Barnaby Joyce has backed a trade union push to guarantee casual mining workers the right to convert to permanent employment after a set time.

The committee also called on the government to review the use of casualised workforces and ­labour hire companies in the mining sector, and backed changes to the Fair Work Act to ban the replacement of directly employed workers with long-term casuals.

Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said the government would “carefully consider” the recommendations, which were labelled a “stunning turnaround” by ACTU secretary Sally McManus.

Resources sector employers criticised the findings, accusing the committee of “buying into divisive language and ill-­informed campaigns’’ against the responsible and appropriate use of labour hire and casual employment arrangements.

The standing committee on industry, innovation, science and resources — three Nationals, two Liberals and three Labor MPs — examined mining industry support for regional businesses, expressing concern about the increased use of casual labour hire by mining companies.

As well as Mr Joyce, the committee included Liberal MP Tim Wilson and Nat­ionals MP George Christensen.

Labor MPs and unionists seized on Mr Wilson’s committee membership given his previous position at the conservative Institute of Public Affairs.

Mr Wilson said he did not attend committee hearings because he was leading separate hearings by the economics committee.

He was not at the meeting that approved the report. “I did not vote for it, nor against it,” he said.

The committee said the increased use of casual labour hire in mining was causing financial difficulty for workers who were “often forced to move to capital cities for work, creating a ‘second class’ of mining employee”.

“The committee understands that during the downturn, the mining industry was looking for ways to economise, but these kinds of work practices can be damaging to communities, impacting on companies’ social ­licence to operate, and should be reviewed,’’ it said.

The committee said it supported moves to legislate to prevent further casualisation and outsourcing of mining workforces.

Australian Mines and Metals Association chief executive Steve Knott said many casuals choose not to covert to permanency as the “lifestyle flexibility and higher wages that come with casual work appeal to them”.

Ms McManus said Mr Joyce, Mr Christensen, and other government MPs representing workers in mining regions “know they are toast at the election if the Morrison government continues to allow big business to casualise what should be good secure jobs’’.