July delivered the MEU’s biggest Same Job Same Pay win yet for coal mineworkers. The full bench of the Fair Work Commission agreed with the MEU that labour hire workers at BHP’s giant operations in Queensland are eligible for Same Job Same Pay. The decision is especially significant because it covers BHP’s in-house labour hire outfit Operations Services.
The Fair Work Commission’s long-awaited decision paves the way for Same Job Same Pay orders to be issued, lifting the pay of well over 2000 workers.
Although this case affects Queensland workers – Same Job Same Pay is already in place at BHP’s Mt Arthur mine in NSW – it is a significant legal victory which sends a message to those mining companies throwing money at lawyers to prevent and delay Same Job Same Pay at their mine sites.
BHP fought hard against the MEU’s application for its Queensland mine sites, because of their size and in an attempt to protect their shonky Operations Services model. BHP’s legal challenge to the MEU’s application significantly delayed the case. The MEU’s application was made in June 2024, hearings were held in February 2025, the decision was issued in July 2025 and at the time of writing, we are still waiting for the order to trigger pay rises under Same Job Same Pay.
This is unfair for workers who are eligible for pay rises under the laws.
We are still having Same Job Same Pay wins. Orders were recently made at United Wambo for Programmed, Workpac, Corestaff and Action Plant services workers who have had their pay brought in line with direct Glencore employees – a rise of as a much as $35,000 a year.
However, too many workers in the coal industry are still waiting for Same Job Same Pay when they are clearly eligible under the intent of the law.
The owners of many of our coal mines and the bosses of labour hire companies are determined to fight our applications in court, preferring to spend millions paying lawyers rather than their workers.
This has devolved from genuine legal challenges when the laws were new into shameless timewasting tactics to delay the orders being issued and put off having to pay a fair rate.
For example, the MEU lodged our application covering labour hire mineworkers at one mine almost nine months ago. Due to being granted excessive time to prepare their case and availability issues for labour hire providers lawyers, it ultimately wasn’t heard until early May, then extended into June, and still hasn’t officially concluded. The delays got so bad that we agreed to provide submissions in writing. The company’s lawyers insisted we hold them in person – only to end up saying not much of anything.
We wish this was an isolated case, but this conduct is unfortunately becoming the norm. Labour hire miners at Hunter Valley Operations, Mt Owen, Mangoola and Ravensworth are all still awaiting a result in their cases, despite the MEU filing each application last year.
These employers leaving their own workers in the lurch, uncertain of whether they’ll get an order or when it will be handed down, in order to put off what is increasingly seen as inevitable.
The federal Labor Government went to the 2022 election with Same Job Same Pay clearly on their agenda. They did as they said they would do and passed legislation to implement Same Job Same Pay in December 2023, with the laws taking effect from November 2024.
We are now into the second half of 2025. There’s no question that mine operators and labour hire companies have had plenty of time to adjust to new requirements and take steps to understand and implement Same Job Same Pay.
If there was any lingering doubt, the significant decision by the full bench of the Federal Court regarding BHP’s Queensland mines should make it clear to everyone in the industry that a labour hire worker performing the same work as a permanent worker under a site EA deserves the same rate of pay. They should stop stalling and start paying.
Robin Williams
District President MEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy
