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Mining jobs a steady force - MCA

14th April 2022

By: Esmarie Iannucci

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

     

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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Permanent employment rates in the mining sector remained high, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) said on Thursday, shooting down concerns around insecure mining positions.

The MCA reported that mining employment had trebled from 83 900 in 2002 to 264 700 in 2021 and overwhelmingly these jobs were permanent positions.

Quoting figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the MCA noted that in 2021, 88% of mining workers were permanently employed, up from 84% in 2020.

In coal, 93% of coal mining workers in Queensland and New South Wales were permanently employed, up from 87% in 2020.

“Where casual workers are employed in mining, their weekly earnings of A$1 864 are more than three times the average for casuals across all industries, at A$592. The mining industry pays the highest average wages, A$144 000 a year, compared to A$94 000 across all industries, and 99% of mining workers earn above-award wages and conditions,” said MCA CEO Tania Constable.

“To accelerate economic recovery, the industry created 6 700 new apprenticeships and traineeships in the last year alone,” Constable said.

Earlier this week, Constable said that given there was a significant skills shortage across Australian industries, including mining, companies are actively competing for labour by offering attractive salaries and conditions.

“The mining industry successfully employs a range of agreement options to drive productivity and incomes. Mining companies tailor their employment arrangements to suit very different locations, ore bodies, production techniques, occupations and worker preferences. There are many legitimate reasons why workers performing the same duties might be paid differently but still above the award.

“For example, some mining workers may earn more than their colleagues in the same work team because they have more qualifications, longer experience, a capacity to operate more types of equipment, or greater familiarity with the geology of particular mines.

“Awards ensure that workers in the same industry or occupation receive the same minimum wages and conditions of employment, and national employment standards apply to all workers irrespective of their agreement or award,” said Constable.

“Wages and conditions above the award safety net should continue to be determined by workplace productivity and individual performance. Australian mining highlights the importance of maintaining an industrial relations system that balances the workplace imperatives of competitiveness, innovation and productivity growth with the need for a strong safety net.”

Constable said that the MCA was opposed to any prescriptive requirement that workers performing the same duties must be provided with the same pay and entitlements above awards, as this would undermine the productivity benefits of enterprise bargaining, discourage future investment and ultimately cost jobs.

However, the Mining and Energy Union on Thursday called the employment figures into doubt, saying the ABS figures on rates of casualisation in the mining did not tell the full story, as they excluded a large portion of the workforce employed through labour hire companies.

The union said major labour hire companies are categorised as belonging to the ‘Administrative and Support Services’ industry, rather than mining.

“The lack of accurate data makes it difficult to assess true rates of casualisation in mining. However there can be no question for anyone close to the mining industry that long-term casual employment has been the preferred employment model for labour hire companies in mining over the past decade, only challenged through union campaigning and legal action,” the union said in a statement.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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