Mining giant BHP has been defeated in a landmark test of the federal government’s “same job, same pay” laws and ordered to pay 2,200 of its Central Queensland coal miners an average of $30,000 more.<\/p>\n
Labour hire workers at BHP’s Saraji, Peak Downs and Goonyella Riverside mines will now receive the same wages as their directly employed peers.<\/p>\n
It is the largest ruling relating to the coal mining sector since the Albanese government’s “same job, same pay” laws came into effect last year.<\/p>\n
The laws require labour hires to be offered the same pay and conditions as full-time employees when doing the same work.<\/p>\n
If applied to all labour hires across its mines, the ruling could cost BHP around $1.3 billion a year, according to the Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA).<\/p>\n
The Mining and Energy Union made the application to the Fair Work Commission and BHP had argued for an exemption on the grounds that the workers were providing a service, not labour, but its case was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
That service contractor exemption was added to the labour hire laws in negotiations with AREEA in 2023, and the association has renewed calls for further amendments following this case.<\/p>\n
The mining union’s Queensland president, Mitch Hughes, said the ruling was a significant win for coal workers and marked a “nail in the coffin for BHP’s sham labour hire model”.<\/p>\n
“If you are doing the same job as the person beside you, you deserve the same pay,” he said.<\/p>\n
“What we’d like to see is the likes of BHP and mining companies turn these jobs into permanent jobs.”<\/p>\n
BHP has been contacted for comment but has previously warned such a ruling could put thousands of jobs at risk.<\/p>\n
The decision marks the seventeenth successful application for the union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mining giant BHP has been defeated in a landmark test of the federal government’s “same job, same pay”…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,36468,263,34717,36469,50,36471,16931,36470],"class_list":{"0":"post-47170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bhp","10":"tag-employment","11":"tag-industrial-relations","12":"tag-labour-hire","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pay","15":"tag-salary","16":"tag-same-job-same-pay"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114814487359919778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}