The Mining & Energy Union has denounced efforts by a Queensland coal mining firm to bring in foreign labour.
Sojitz Blue has applied to bring in foreign coal mineworkers while also postponing enterprise agreement talks and providing current employees with subpar employment contracts.
350 people are employed by the company, which runs the Gregory Crinum and Meteor Down South (MDS) coal mines in Queensland‘s Emerald region.
Sojitz Blue has told the union that it intends to apply to the Department of Home Affairs for a Company Specific Labour Agreement in order to hire foreign production operators for its Gregory Crinum mine.
The company plans to hire production operators for excavators, trucks, loaders, graders, water carts, and diggers.
MEU Queensland District President Steve Smyth said Sojitz Blue would not be in this situation if it went down and negotiated a reasonable enterprise agreement at market rate with Australian workers.
“Sojitz Blue put its workers on individual contracts which duds them out of a range of industry-standard pay and conditions including retention payments, sick leave provisions and redundancy entitlements. That’s all money Sojitz Blue is trousering instead of their workers, and they wonder why people take their skills elsewhere,” Smyth stated.
According to Smyth, if Sojitz Blue believes it can import cheap labour from overseas to undercut Australian employees, it should be aware that our members will battle them every step of the way.
“Most decent Australians would be appalled that a company, during a coal boom where prices have gone from $90 to $400 a tonne, could undercut good regional jobs by choppering in foreign workers,” he added.
Smyth said the Australian coal sector in Australia would generate $100 billion in income this year, a $50 billion increase over last year, and yet there are still fools who wish to cheat Australian employees out of market-rate pay and conditions.
“Instead of looking overseas for answers they need to walk down the gall to their HR department and tell them to respect their current workforce and start negotiating instead of flip flopping around. Our members at Sojitz Blue complain all the time they have no career development so if they want to increase their skills and move from driving trucks to operating loaders, graders or diggers they are just blocked by the company, that’s incredibly bad for individual morale,” Smyth stated.
According to the Mining & Energy Union, the majority of mining corporations hire employees through Enterprise Agreements rather than individual contracts. The FWC approves Enterprise Agreements to guarantee workers are not worse off than under the Black Coal Industry Award and are negotiated in accordance with industry norms. Because they are on individual contracts, many Sojitz Blue employees have poorer working conditions than the rest of the sector.
