PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has welcomed the federal government's proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act, saying it will help to ensure that Australian mining keeps providing highly paid, highly skilled and secure jobs across Australia.

Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter on Wednesday unveiled the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020, which contains a range of practical measures targeting five areas of the industrial relations system.

The Bill is aimed at cutting red tap and improving flexibility and job opportunities; boosting investment in job-creating mega-projects by making them more attractive to global investors through new maximum eight-year life-of-construction agreements, complete with appropriate safeguards and guaranteed wage increases; and ending confusion and uncertainty surrounding the legal status of casuals, while providing a clearer pathway for those working regular shifts to convert to permanent roles after 12 months.

The Bill also reduces the risk of wage underpayments by helping employers comply with their obligations, providing improved mechanisms to rectify underpayments where they do occur, and protecting employee entitlements by introducing a new criminal penalty with a four-year jail term for the very small number of employers who deliberately exploit their workers.

MCA CEO Tania Constable on Wednesday said that improving the approval process for enterprise agreements, including by accelerating agreements supported by a majority of employees and stipulating how the Fair Work Commission should apply the better-off-overall test, meant more consistent approval times for similar agreements, more certainty for employers and faster creation of jobs and wage increases in exchange for productivity gains.

“Allowing greenfield agreements of up to eight years for projects worth A$500-million or more will encourage investment in new mining projects by removing the uncertainty of having to renegotiate employment conditions mid-stream.

“This reform is good for projects that involve underground mining, minerals processing or more complex project plans, which may take more than four years to proceed from construction to execution to completion,” Constable said.

She noted that Australia’s mining competitors in the US and Canada have access to enterprise agreements covering the life of a project; yet in Australia all enterprise agreements, including greenfield agreements, are currently limited to four years. 

The MCA previously identified 31 minerals projects at or above the A$500-million threshold that have completed a feasibility study and are actively progressing their plans towards starting construction within the next four to five years.

The combined A$31-billion in investment flowing from these projects could create more than 17 000 construction jobs and 11 000 ongoing operating jobs across Australia.

“Extending the option of longer greenfield agreements to nationally significant projects with a capital value between A$250-million and A$500-million will help unlock additional investment and jobs.  

“While 85% of mining workers are permanent employees, the government’s decision to define casual employment in the Fair Work Act, and clarify the entitlements owing to casuals in national employment standards, is a positive development,” Constable said.

She added that the Industrial Relations Omnibus Bill would reduce uncertainty and inflexibility in workplace relations and make Australia more internationally competitive as a destination for mining investment.

The resources sector directly employs 240 000 people, mostly in regional and remote Australia and average full-time earnings in resources are A$144 000 a year, some 58% above the average for all industries.