BHP is fighting unions over wages and conditions at its Pilbara mines, where partial work bans have already taken effect this week as the Electrical Trades Union pushes for more transparent annual pay adjustments, universal agreement on conditions, and measurable paths to promotion.
Workers will refuse overtime, call-outs and stepping up as supervisors for two weeks and will indefinitely ban mentoring new employees. Day’s industrial relations comments centred around the Labor government’s changes to workplace laws, which BHP has long warned could trigger a re-unionisation of the Pilbara.
The company also recently lost a High Court bid to appeal landmark “same job same pay” rulings that forced it to increase the pay of 2000 labour-hire workers in Queensland by $20,000 to $30,000 a year.
On the broader question of Australia’s attractiveness to international investors, Day warned that investment was already slowing.
“What do you think is actually going on with the general public to not relate to this story?” Day said.
“There’s something missing in the way that we’re engaging – not just us, everybody – around this cliff edge that we’re heading to. Investment has already stopped, it’s already slowing down.
“The general public won’t see it for five years because these are long burn issues. What do you think is at the core of that issue? What’s going on?”
Taylor said declining investment into Australia extended beyond the West Australian mining sector and had been falling for 20 years.
“I’m worried about what’s happening to investment in this country. Investment is the key to rising incomes, prosperity, to being able to pay down our debt, to rising real wages,” Taylor said at a press conference after the event.
“Right now, under this government, we’ve seen lacklustre investment right across Australia, and we are paying a high price for that.”
Taylor’s trip to Perth coincided with the federal opposition announcing policies promising to cut green tape for resources projects in a bid to stoke new investment.
The opposition on Monday vowed to reverse Labor’s environmental reforms, which Taylor said had stymied the oil and gas sector, by not allowing them to access streamlined approval pathways.
Taylor was also expected to appear at a private fundraising event at a yacht club in Perth’s affluent western suburbs on Monday night.
In response to Day’s comments, a spokesman for Resources Minister Madeleine King said workers in the state’s resources sector had the right to bargain with their employers for better pay and conditions.
“Resources sector workers undertake long hours and swings, in harsh and remote conditions and often spend days or weeks away from family,” she said.
“A strong mining industry needs skilled workers who are safe and properly paid.”
BHP’s Western Australia iron ore cost of production is the lowest of any major iron ore producer in the world.
