PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Mining giant BHP Billiton was facing industrial action from its mine supervisors at the Dendrobium coal mine, which forms part of its Illawara operations, in New South Wales.
The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia (Apesma) said on Thursday that the protected action would start on January 11, and was only being undertaken after all other options in its negotiations with BHP over the past five months had been exhausted.
“No one takes industrial action lightly. But after five months of negotiations, mining supervisors have no other way to get BHP to take their concerns seriously,” said Apesma’s Margaret Buchanan.
She noted that the major stumbling blocks in the dispute have been the request by mining supervisors to BHP to improve their base rate pay to be in line with New South Wales standards, and to have guaranteed yearly increases, rather than discretional increases.
“There is no question that BHP, given its massive size and profitability, can afford to pay these Illawarra workers their value,” Buchanan said.
“Dendrobium supervisors are extremely disappointed that BHP is refusing to take this issue seriously. Every day, these supervisors work in hard conditions to keep the mine safe and productive; they simply want their contribution fairly valued.”
The industrial action would consist of ongoing bans on working non-rostered overtime and any communication or consultation that starts before the 30-minute pre-shift consultation, or which occurs after the 15-minute post-shift consultation.
Mining supervisors would not work shifts on either January 11 or January 14, and there would be a one-hour stop work meeting on January 15.