The Mining & Energy Union (MEU) has recommended a boost in pay and conditions in order to attract local workers and get ahead of the skills shortage.
The suggestion comes after Sojitz Blue, a Japanese mining company, applied to the Department of Home Affairs for permission to bring in foreign labour for its Queensland coal mining operations.
Sojitz Blue produces thermal and coking coal from three mines near Emerald in Queensland, including the Gregory Crinum mine it acquired from BHP for $100 million in 2018, and employs hundreds of workers.
Australia’s unemployment rate is currently sitting at 3.5 per cent, an almost 50-year low.
Sojitz Blue has informed the union that it is seeking a Company Specific Labour Agreement from the department to recruit foreign production operators for its Gregory Crinum mine. BHP and Whitehaven Coal have also indicated that foreign workers could help solve production slumps.
“If a fair enterprise agreement at market rate is negotiated with Australian workers they wouldn’t be in this pickle,” MEU Queensland district president Steve Smyth said.
Smyth said companies need to start negotiating for better pay for local workers in order to combat the skills shortage.
Speaking at the Federal Government’s July jobs summit, BHP’s chief operating officer Edgar Basto said that “expediting skilled migration” was one of the avenues to addressing Australia’s labour shortage.
Whitehaven boss Paul Flynn said last week that there was no relief in sight on labour availability front, with the company looking offshore for some skilled workers and paying retention bonuses to keep employees.
Both companies have cited labour shortages and wet weather as reasons for lower coal outputs.
The biggest hits were in the NSW thermal coal industry, where BHP’s sales slumped by 38 per cent and Whitehaven’s slumped 32 per cent.
The national unemployment figures for September show there were 148,000 people looking for work compared with 150,800 job vacancies. In Western Australia, there were 9000 more jobs available than people looking for work, or about 1.4 jobs for every unemployed person.