Harnessing a mix of employment models had helped the mining industry to triple its workforce in the past 20 years, the Minerals Council of Australia has told a Senate inquiry into job security.

MCA deputy chief executive officer Sid Marris said Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed 84 per cent of the workforce were permanent employees either with a mining company or specialised service contractor.

“The industry pays the highest average wages. Employees in companies present today are all paid above award rates, double the median for all industry,” he said

“The average is $2325 in 2020 and casual employees earn 42 more than the median for full-time work in all industries.

“Different companies employ different combinations of employment quite deliberately because eking out continual improvements in labour productivity, cost competitiveness and enterprise flexibility are essential to maintaining and expanding mining jobs over the long term.

“It has helped deliver that tripling of employment.”

Mr Marris was joined by executives from Rio Tinto, Anglo American and BHP in giving evidence in a public hearing yesterday of the Senate Select Committee on Job Security.

Under questioning, Mr Marris confirmed an understanding that the average pay gap for labour hire casuals compared to direct permanent employees in mining was 24 per cent.

Anglo American human resources manager Warwick Jones said the amount labour hire workers were paid compared to permanent workforce across that company’s operations varied from 5 per cent more to 22 per cent less, covering various occupations and salaries.

Casualisation ‘pandemic’ undermining community – Baker

Isaac Region Mayor Anne Baker told the hearing that labour hire, or casualisation of the coal mining workforce, was completely undermining the socio-economic health of regional and remote communities.

“It is a complete undermine, an offensive insult that is continuing to be allowed to happen,” she said. “I’m sorry if I sound very direct. I just don’t want to be mincing my words in another six or 10 years’ time.

“There’s really strong community confidence that we are all on the same page here. And I don’t know how you people can help us.”

She said someone must take the lead and make significant changes regarding the working models.

The committee heard that Isaac had a population of more than 20,000 permanent residents – but on any given night of the week it had a non-resident population of more than 12,000 due to the workers who traveled in and out of the region to work at local mines.

“We are very very aware of the mining operations’ increasing preference of favouring the labour hire model to meet their requirements over moving towards or moving back to a more permanent model which we’ve seen some time ago,” Cr Baker said.

Cr Baker described it as ‘nothing short of a pandemic’ of casualisation.

“While we believe labour hire, or a form of casualisation, needs to be in some form accepted, it should never have been allowed, should never be allowed, to be a model of full replacement,” she said.

“We are actually living and breathing this, to the detriment of the viability and the resilience of our community.”