Thousands of BHP coal miners in Central Queensland have the chance to negotiate better working conditions after the Miners’ Union successfully defeated two enterprise agreements covering the Big Australian’s Operations Services in-house labour hire workforce.
In a decision handed down yesterday, the full bench of the Fair Work Commission found two Operations Services agreements were not genuinely agreed to and therefore were incapable of being approved.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Queensland President Stephen Smyth said BHP had ramped up its Operations Services workforce across its Bowen Basin coal mines, but they were being treated as poor cousins of permanent BHP coal miners – with much lower pay and worse conditions.
“From the moment they first came to our attention, we have said these agreements are not worth the paper they are written on,” said Mr Smyth.
“BHP says its Operations Services worker are part of the BHP family. But under these agreements they are paid $50,000 less per year, have no access to conditions like accident pay, can be transferred anywhere in Australia at the company’s whim.
“We are extremely pleased that Fair Work has accepted our arguments and found that these agreements are not only unfair, they are not legally valid.
“Our Union has been talking to Operations Services workers over many months and we know that many are disappointed and frustrated at the way they are being treated – like having paid flights suddenly removed and being forced to work on Christmas Day.
“Our message to Operations Services workers is that by standing together, workers can take on big companies like BHP and win,” said Mr Smyth. “We are committed to standing with you and fighting for a better deal in line with coal mining industry standards.”
In 2018 BHP created two shelf companies to use as labour hire companies to provide labour to BHP run mines. In October 2018 they made some enterprise agreements with a nominal iron ore workforce in the Pilbara who had no familiarity with black coal mining conditions in the eastern states.
There are now some 2000 Operations Services workers deployed at BHP coal mines in Queensland. Due to the ongoing legal challenge over the two Enterprise Agreements, BHP has moved its Operations Services’ workforce on to contracts reflecting the same pay and conditions.
Workers’ employment will not be affected by the agreements being found invalid, but they now have the opportunity to negotiate a fairer Enterprise Agreement, said Mr Smyth.
“The CFMEU has the experience and determination to fight for better conditions for coal miners and that’s what we’ll do for Operations Services workers.”
