Parliament should resist retrograde push for industry-wide bargaining

Entrenching industry-wide bargaining – as some union leaders are proposing – would be a backwards step that would impede productivity, raise costs, discourage investment and hinder Australia’s economic recovery.

The Australian mining industry exemplifies the success of enterprise-level bargaining, where employment arrangements can be tailored to meet the needs of disparate operations and wages are linked to productivity and performance.

Australian mining directly employs 256,800 people in highly skilled, highly paid and secure jobs – three times more workers than 20 years ago and with higher average wages than any other industry.

Any return to centralised and rigid workplace relations would be especially damaging to mining:

• The industry is a world-leader in developing and adapting transformative technologies, which are continually augmenting and reshaping mining roles
• The industry operates in dramatically different workplace environments – from head offices in capital cities, to regional towns, to remote locations hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town or community
• Mining operations can have very different staffing requirements owing to differences in geography and ore bodies – both between and within companies
• The industry employs skilled professional and tradespeople from diverse backgrounds in a wide range of occupations
• Mining experiences larger swings in production and revenue than other major industries.

To compete and succeed, Australian mining needs to be safe, technologically advanced and adaptable.

This is best achieved by mutually beneficial partnerships between employers and employees founded in flexible workplace arrangements – underpinned by a strong safety net – that cater for operational needs, individual choice, inclusion and diversity, and skills development.

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