PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Mining and Energy Union on Friday rejected mining major BHP’s claims that future critical minerals projects would be adversely affected by new laws to close loopholes affecting the pay of labour hire workers.

Speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce, BHP Australia president Geraldine Slattery said that a shrinking talent pool and the rising cost of labour was placing Australia’s competitiveness at risk.

“Australia has one of the highest labour costs in the world – around 12% higher than in the US. We are proud to be a high-paying industry, especially when you consider that many of the employment and business opportunities our sector generates are in regional areas.  

“However, we need to match that position with sector-leading productivity. That’s not happening today, in fact labour productivity has declined by 8% while labour costs have doubled. Clearly, this is not sustainable,” Slattery said.

She noted that changes to industrial relations policies were of particular concern, and like many businesses, BHP believed they would have a negative impact on Australia’s competitiveness and jobs.

Mining and Energy Union general secretary Grahame Kelly said that Australians rightly expected decent wages and fair working conditions in exchange for multinationals like BHP profiting from the nation’s mineral resources.

Kelly said BHP was running a scare campaign against proposed laws designed to address current wage rorts in the mining industry, that would lead to some labour hire workers being paid more.

“BHP is pulling numbers out of thin air about the impact of laws that aren’t yet finalised on projects that haven’t been built,” said Kelly.

“We totally reject BHP’s suggestion that Australia’s future critical minerals industry can only succeed with a race to the bottom on wages. Same Job Same Pay would close the loopholes that have allowed some mining companies to rort the system by paying part of the workforce less than the rates genuinely agreed between employers and employees at a site. 

“It would set the Australian mining industry up for a more sustainable future where workers can bargain from a level playing field and that a new generation of Australian workers want to be involved in.”