An Asia-backed mining operation would rather fly-in foreign workers than improve existing employment entitlements, an advocate said.
Japan-headquartered Sojitz Blue recently sought regulatory approval to hire overseas jobseekers who could accept lower wages at the Gregory Crinum Coal Mine, about 60km northeast of Emerald.
“The company has informed the union it is seeking a company-specific labour agreement from the Department of Home Affairs to recruit foreign production operators for its Gregory Crinum mine,” the Mining and Energy Union (MEU) said in a public statement.
“The company wants to recruit production operators for excavators, trucks, loaders, graders, water carts and diggers.”
MEU Queensland district president Steve Smyth is concerned many foreigners might not realise they are entitled to better work conditions. He is also worried the strategy could delay a resolution to ongoing employee disputes about “substandard work contracts”.
“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 [or] graders or diggers, they are just blocked by the company – that is incredibly bad for individual morale,” he said.
“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.”
Smyth urged the mineral producer to keep renegotiating enterprise agreements for more industry-standard pay and conditions like “retention payments, sick leave provisions and redundancy entitlements”. These agreements cover up to 350 employees at the Gregory Crinum and Meteor Down South operations.
“That is all money Sojitz Blue is trousering instead of their workers, and they wonder why people take their skills elsewhere,” he said.
“Instead of looking overseas for answers they need to walk down the hall to their human resources department, and tell them to respect their current workforce and start negotiating instead of flip-flopping around.”
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