The Fair Work Commission has delivered a major ruling against BHP, ordering the company to align pay for labour-hire workers with that of full-time employees. However, the decision leaves deeper wage theft allegations unaddressed.
BHP Faces Landmark Ruling, But Deeper Issues Remain
In a pivotal ruling, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ordered BHP to pay contractors the same wages as directly employed workers. This affects three of the company’s Queensland coal mines and is expected to cost BHP $66 million annually. If expanded to all BHP coal operations, costs could exceed $1.3 billion each year.
While unions and workers have welcomed the outcome as a win under the Albanese government’s “same job, same pay” legislation, the ruling has sparked criticism for failing to address long-standing wage theft and whistleblower mistreatment.
Former labour-hire worker Simon Turner, injured at BHP’s Mount Arthur mine in 2015, said: “The Commission’s ruling acknowledges what workers have known and lived for over a decade … but in truth, it is a calculated cover-up.”
Historic Enterprise Agreements and Legal Failures
In 2015, the CFMEU challenged Chandler Macleod for violating the Black Coal Mining Industry Award. Over 100 workers were allegedly denied basic entitlements. A private settlement was reached, barring the union from taking further action over those entitlements.
That same year, the FWC approved an Enterprise Agreement without a Better Off Overall Test (BOOT). The agreement allowed labour-hire firms like Chandler Macleod to pay workers far less than award rates and falsely classify them as casuals—despite legal restrictions on casual employment in black coal mining.
“The truth is this,” Turner said. “The FWC greenlit and enabled the industrial fraud they now claim to condemn.”
In 2018, Turner led a class action seeking millions in backpay for 1,200 workers. The case was later discontinued after his lawyers mistakenly claimed his employer was Ready Workforce, not Chandler Macleod—fatally weakening the legal argument.
He alleges this was no accident: “This deception robbed thousands of coal workers of backpay, compensation, and the possibility of civil penalties for those who committed industrial fraud.”
No Pathway to Recover Stolen Wages
Although the Commission’s ruling marks a legal shift, many believe it arrives too late to deliver justice to those affected. BHP whistleblower James Joseph stated, “It needs to be done in an ethical way, in a legal way.”
He criticised BHP’s ongoing attempts to exploit loopholes while sending profits offshore. For many workers, this underpayment wasn’t isolated but systemic.
Former Mount Arthur worker Sam Stephens echoed the sentiment: “Everyone is being underpaid. All labour-hire workers engaged either as full-time or casuals have been underpaid.”
Turner is preparing a new Federal Court claim to reopen his case. “I lost my home, I lost everything,” he said. “My injuries have caused me not to be able to work again.”
