Australian Unions is taking aim at the country’s most powerful mining interests for lobbying the Coalition to undo the government’s new Same Job Same Pay rights.

The legislation, which will impact several companies operating in the Hunter, comes into effect on 1 November.

But, the Coalition’s made it clear it would review that policy if elected in 2025, unleashing a fresh round of wage-cutting labour hire schemes.

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus will now use a national convention of the Mining and Energy Union in Brisbane on Monday 28 October to attack their vow.

“The cost of paying labour hire workers fairly and equally pales in comparison to mining company profits, it’s small change for them,” she said.

“However, it isn’t for the working people and their families who are seeing life-changing pay rises because of these laws.

“This week thousands of employees will see them flow through, many of them very significant because the Albanese government withstood the campaign by big business last year to stop workers getting better rights.

“But, the major mining company owners and CEOs are demanding the Coalition restore their wage-cutting schemes.

“Last month, Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume confirmed these rights are under threat should they win the election.

“The thing is many big businesses will always be looking for ways to cut wages.

“They’ll always be looking for loopholes and legal schemes to increase their profits.

“The job of a government is to support Australian workers and their families by making sure this does not happen.”

Same Job Same Pay rights require companies to remunerate labour hire workers at least the same amount as directly employed employees.

It effectively closes a loophole that businesses, such as Qantas and BHP, pioneered as a wage-cutting ploy.

The Fair Work Commission can start making orders from 1 November,

However, employers across the country have already made the decision to abandon the use of labour hire to cut wages by bringing workers in-house or upping their pay.

This has occurred in industries as diverse as warehousing, aviation, meat processing and mining.

But, the coal industry, which has the deepest pockets, is still fighting in the courts and politically to reverse the laws.

That sector generated $253 billion in the past financial year.

In the last decade, profits have increased by almost four times more than wages.

Despite that, the mining lobby is determined to bring back the use of its labour hire wage-cutting schemes.

“The Minerals Council of Australia and Gina Rinehart talk about the new rights as threatening to increase workplace conflict and drive away investment,” Ms McManus said.

“It is true mining investment is down, but not because of union efforts to win more job security for workers.

“Over the past 10 years, mining investment as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 9.2% to 2.9%.

“For every dollar the industry is reinvesting back into Australia, the industry and its shareholders are banking $1.50 in profits.

“The biggest barrier to mining investment in this country is not workplace relations but the big mining companies’ own greed.

“The industry is so profitable that it could have funded a $9,000 cost-of-living bonus for every worker in Australia this year and still remain the most profitable sector in the country, according to a new ACTU analysis.

“The cost of the Same Job Same Pay reforms amounts to less than half a percentage point of annual profits – 0.016% of annual profits.”

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