BHP will come to the bargaining table over pay and conditions for some of its Port Hedland port employees, in a move the Western Mineworkers Alliance described as “long overdue”.
BHP will come to the bargaining table over pay and conditions for some of its Port Hedland port employees, in a move the Western Mineworkers Alliance described as “long overdue”.
The Big Australian has issued a notice of employee representational rights to its Port Hedland production and maintenance workforce, which notifies employees that bargaining for a single-enterprise agreement has kicked off.
The Western Mineworkers Alliance – the joint venture formed by the Mining and Energy Union and AWU (Australian Workers Union) - said its union representatives were seeking to negotiate on pay, conditions and job security on behalf of its members.
BHP has opened the door to negotiate on a single agreement which would collectively cover about 400 to 500 of its maintenance and production teams at its port operations in Port Hedland.
Both the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Electrical Trade Union will be representing its members among the maintenance crew, while the AWU will be representing its members on the production team.
The alliance said BHP's decision followed its majority support petition campaign at BHP’s Port Hedland port operations, for which it claimed the Fair Work Commission had confirmed that 74 per cent of workers supported the application to bargain for a union collective deal.
It comes re-unionisation efforts have been ramping up in the Pilbara, with the unions namely targeting heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto across different divisions of their operations in the iron ore heartland.
WMWA spokesperson and AWU Acting National Secretary Chris Donovan said this was a "significant and long overdue step forward for BHP’s port workers".
“They deserve a fair say over their wages and conditions through a union-negotiated agreement,” he said.
“We recognise the clear desire among workers and BHP to negotiate collectively.”
Mr Donovan said over the coming weeks they would be consulting their members to develop a log of claims focused on better pay, conditions, and job security.
“We’ve won the right to be heard – now we have to make it count,” he said.
The alliance said the fair work umpire had advised BHP that both the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union may hold majority support for the maintenance and electrical workforce at the same site.
A BHP spokesperson confirmed it would be coming to the bargaining table for a single enterprise agreement.
“We have advised our employees that we are starting the process to create a new enterprise agreement at our Port Operations," BHP said.
"BHP will continue working directly with our people to deliver ongoing stability, high performance and some of the best paying jobs in the country.”
Separately, BHP recently hit go on a $1.4 billion investment to upgrade infrastructure at its port operations at Port Hedland, dubbed its Port Debottlenecking Project 2.
The iron ore major will instal of a sixth car dumper, additional conveyors and supporting infrastructure to support its 305 million tonne per annum medium-term production target throughout planned upgrades in the 2029 financial year.
BHP is expecting the upgrades to bolster car dumper capacity, allowing the port tot run with at least five car dumpers more than 90 per cent of the time, up from 60 per cent.
