BHP Australia President Geraldine Slattery has lambasted the expedited passing of the Federal Government’s contentious same job, same pay policy, labelling the move as “rushed” and “extremely disappointing”.
Her comments come after Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke struck a deal with crossbench senators Jacqui Lambie, David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe and the Greens to split his mammoth legislation and pass some of its 23 measures into law on Thursday.
Mr Burke has claimed the proposed Closing the Loophole Bill — introduced in September — or same job, same pay industrial relations changes, will put an end to a “longstanding loophole” that allows companies to pay workers engaged through labour hire companies less than those covered under enterprise bargaining agreements.
The decision has drawn the ire of the Big Australian, an already staunchly vocal critic of the proposed changes.
“BHP has previously supported the majority of the measures contained in the legislation passed by the Parliament today. The notable exception is the Government’s same job, same pay policy,” Ms Slattery said in a statement.
“It is extremely disappointing that this significant change has been rushed through the Parliament before the committee inquiring into the impacts of this Bill has even reported.”
BHP has previously claimed that the cost associated to its operations if the changes came through would be about $1.3 billion, with Ms Slattery adding the miner was now “compelled” to assess the impact of the policy.
“Same job, same pay will only add to the cost-of-living crisis already being felt by Australian households, and will put an additional burden on business, drive up costs and do nothing to address Australia’s productivity problem,” she said.
“The Government should be making it easier, not harder, for Australian companies to succeed, to grow and to create well-paid jobs. We are now compelled to assess the impact this policy will have across our operations, offices and labour strategy in Australia.
“At a time when Australia should be in the box seat to deliver the minerals needed for the global energy transition, through this Bill the Government is making Australia an even more expensive and less competitive place to do business, making it harder to attract the global capital needed to develop vital new resources projects and the highly-paid mining jobs which come with them.”
She said BHP would remain steadfast in its opposition to what she called a “retrograde and damaging policy”.
“Alongside employers and businesses from sectors right across the Australian economy, BHP will remain steadfast in our opposition to this retrograde and damaging policy, and we will continue to urge the Parliament to repeal same job, same pay.”
WA’s mining industry, which leans heavily on labour hire, has been broadly united in its opposition to the proposed legislation, claiming it will do nothing to increase productivity and only drive up costs.
Qantas has also been a target of the Bill and drawn flak from unions who have accused the airline of using internal labour hire companies to circumvent existing bargaining agreements and to bring in workers on lower pay standards.