Unions seek $128m in same job, same pay wage rises

Unions are capitalising on Labor’s new ‘same job, same pay’ laws to try to win $128m in wage rises for 4300 labour hire mineworkers, with officials predicting the dozens of claims will be ‘just the start’.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus says the biggest barrier to mining investment is the big mining companies’ ‘own greed’. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

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Unions are capitalising on Labor’s new “same job, same pay” laws to try to win $128m in wage rises for 4300 labour hire mineworkers, with officials predicting the dozens of claims will be “just the start” of their bid to change mining industry employment practices.

Mining employers accused unions of a “power grab”, warning that the accumulation of the Albanese government’s workplace law changes would be a “wet blanket” on the economy, impeding growth, investment, jobs and, ultimately, wages.

Under laws that come into effect this week, the Mining and Energy Union has made 46 applications to lift the wages of an estimated 4306 workers at 24 coal mine sites in NSW and Queensland.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the biggest barrier to mining investment in Australia was not workplace relations but the big mining companies’ “greed”.

According to a new ACTU analysis, the cost of the “same job, same pay” changes to the mining sector amounted to almost a hundredth of a percentage point – 0.016 per cent – of annual profits. It found the mining industry was so profitable it could have funded a $9000 cost-of-living bonus for every worker in Australia this year and still be the most profitable industry in the country.

“This week thousands of workers will see pay rises flow through, many of them very significant because the Albanese government withstood the campaign by big business last year to stop workers getting better rights,” Ms McManus said.

“The thing is many big businesses will always be looking for ways to cut wages. They will always be looking for loopholes and legal schemes to increase their profits.

“The job of a government is to support Australian workers and their families by making sure this does not happen.”

MEU general secretary ­Grahame Kelly said the 46 applications were “just the start of an industry-wide effort to stamp out exploitative labour hire practices”.

“‘Same job, same pay’ is ­driving pay rises for labour hire workers as intended,” Mr Kelly said.

“It is also leading to mining companies hiring more permanent workers as their financial incentive to outsource is removed. There is a consistent trend of hiring more permanent employees among our biggest mine operators including Anglo, Peabody, Whitehaven, Glencore and BHP – some of these companies haven’t taken on permanents in over a decade.

“These laws are a game-changer for ­employment practices in the mining industry.”

Mr Kelly said the union was confident that the circumstances at all the sites subject to “same job, same pay” applications met the criteria set out under the new laws: that labour hire workers were being paid less for the same work as permanent employees covered by an enterprise agreement.

“We believe that some employers are contesting applications simply to buy time and delay pay rises that are inevitable,” he said. “We urge them to respect the law of the land and pay workers according to their obligations.”

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said the government’s rewriting of industrial relations law was “at the demand of the unions (and) never about lifting wages”.

“It was about extending union power and influence, and reunionising the private sector, with a particular aim of infiltrating one of Australia’s most ­productive and economy-­enhancing zones: the Pilbara,” Ms Constable said.

“The mining sector boasts the highest wages in the country. This is a feat that mining companies are tremendously proud of, and one that benefits not only workers and their families, but their communities and the wider economy.

“But it has come as a result of the strength of the sector and ­respectful co-operation between employers and employees, not the power and infiltration of ­unions.”

Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association chief executive Steve Knott said access to flexible and ­efficient supplementary labour was crucial for miners to ­leverage the highs and manage the lows of the commodity price cycle.

The Fair Work Commission can start making orders from November 1, but Ms McManus said employers across the country had already made the decision to abandon the use of labour hire to cut wages by bringing workers in-house or upping their pay.

“This has occurred in industries as diverse as warehousing, aviation, meat processing and mining. However, mining companies that have the deepest pockets are still fighting in the courts and politically to reverse the laws,” Ms McManus said.