Unions say it is a wage shortage rather than a skills shortage driving Glencore’s need to recruit overseas to fill positions at Mount Isa.

But the company has rejected union comments as out of touch with economic reality when it comes to recruitment, enterprise bargaining negotiations and the government lifeline extended to its local copper operations.

The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) accused Glencore of attempting to replace Australian workers with overseas labour in order to undercut fair wage increases in current enterprise bargaining negotiations.

Related: Glencore looks overseas to fill Mount Isa roles

“After stripping every cent they could out of the region and running their assets into the ground, Glencore stood beside governments last October and accepted $600 million in public support to keep these operations (the Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville refinery) alive and protect regional jobs,” AWU Queensland branch secretary Stacey Schinnerl said.

“Now, while Mount Isa workers are simply asking for an agreement that delivers fair outcomes and a decent wage increase in a cost-of-living crisis, the company’s response is to go shopping overseas for a cheaper workforce.

“Let’s be clear: this is not a skills shortage. This is a wage shortage.

“Glencore wants to bring in truck drivers, accountants, and bricklayers. I’m sorry, but there are ample Australians to do these jobs.

“They want to bring in electricians, concreters, geologists, and welders. I’m sorry, but maybe they should go talk to the hundreds of workers they laid off a few months ago before they look overseas.”

The AMWU Queensland and Northern Territory Branch expressed deep concerns that Glencore was recruiting about 120 trades workers from overseas for its Mount Isa operations.

“The copper mine has closed. Hundreds of skilled workers have already lost their jobs,” AMWU state secretary Rohan Webb said.

“If Glencore can’t fill 120 trades roles in that environment, it’s not because the skills aren’t there – it’s because they’re not offering market rates.

“Workers are telling us the pay and conditions simply aren’t competitive with what’s available elsewhere in the resources sector. You can’t talk about labour shortages while refusing to meet the market.”

A Glencore spokeswoman said the company’s preference was to fill job vacancies at Mount Isa Mines with local residents where they possessed the necessary skills and abilities.

“Since October 2025, Glencore has offered 270 permanent jobs to people based locally, many of these have been conversion of FIFO contractors into local jobs,” she said.

“The 120 skilled job vacancies are being advertised in both Australia and overseas. Anyone recruited from overseas will be paid the same as local employees and are recruited to live locally with their families which supports the town’s local residential population.

“Perhaps the AWU has forgotten that Mount Isa and Mount Isa Mines (MIM) was built by generations of Australian and skilled multicultural labour with over 52 different nationalities represented in Mount Isa in the 1970s.

“The AWU objecting to overseas recruitment where skilled labour can’t be found locally or in Australia is pure hypocrisy.”

The spokeswoman said Glencore was currently discussing proposals for annual salary increases for workers at Mount Isa Mines.

The EA must pass the government’s Better Off Overall Test, which meant that each employee must be better off overall than the award and benefit from the EA overall, she said.

“We currently exceed the award standards in several conditions, including annual leave, long service leave, compassionate leave, payment of sick leave on termination (15 years and above), redundancy entitlements, salaries.”

Even with the government support announced last year, the Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery continued to lose money due to the continued decline of treatment and refining charges and shortage of available copper concentrates, she said.

“Linking the current enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations to the $600 million smelter agreement as a rationale for wage increases is astounding – without the agreement the smelter would have closed, and the smelter jobs would have been lost,” she said.