Hunter unions, businesses and Newcastle Uni to appear at Senate job security committee in Newcastle after reporting date extended from November to February

The committee is chaired by Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, with the Coalition's Matt Canavan as deputy chair.

The hearings are at Wests Newcastle, starting at 10am both days.

Tuesday's witnesses include the National Tertiary Education Union, the University of Newcastle, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the union-environmental group Hunter Jobs Alliance and two rail companies, Progress Rail and Downer Rail.

IN THE NEWS:

The committee's arrival in coal country follows the unveiling of Labor's climate change policy on Friday.

Driving to Newcastle from Canberra yesterday, National Party Senator Matt Canavan, who has positioned himself and his party as outspoken supporters of the coal industry, described the Labor plan as "a massive tax on jobs in the coal and aluminium industries".

"Labor has proposed massive cuts in emissions and they have admitted that they are going to get these cuts by making the so-called big polluters pay," Senator Canavan said.

"Higher taxes on our jobs will mean fewer jobs in regions like the Hunter. That will be a massive missed opportunity when there has never been stronger demand for our high quality coal and other resources."

Hunter Workers secretary Leigh Shears said the inquiry came as Australia experienced "the greatest surge in casual work in history, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and recurrent lockdowns".

"Local workers from aged care, community services, disability services, TAFE, and the meat industry will be detailing their experiences with insecure work in the region," Mr Shears said.

" Only 60 per cent of workers today are in full or part-time ongoing employment, while the rest are engaged either as casuals, on short-term contracts, in labour hire, or as 'independent' contractors.

"This growth of insecure work is at the detriment of workers, who shoulder lower average pay, lack of entitlements, and the inability to plan for life or take on commitments.

"Precarious employment offers companies flexibility, but all workers get is insecurity."

LABOUR HIRE REPORTING:

The committee was established in December last year. As well as senators Sheldon and Canavan its other members are senators Mehreen Faruqi, Greens, Ben Small, Liberals, and Jess Walsh, ALP.

Its first hearings were in Sydney, Wollongong and Melbourne across six days in April, followed by 14 hearings in Canberra between June and November.

The committee website lists 220 submissions, a substantial number for a Senate inquiry.

The committee has published three interim reports so far, the third last month. It was originally due to report on November 30 but the Senate agreed in October to move this to the final sitting day in February next year.

On the controversial question of labour hire in Australia, the November interim report noted that the Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association quoted a figure of 360,000 people employed this way, while ABS estimates of labour hire showed an increase from 580,000 in 2011-12 to more than 790,000 in 2018-19.

"Although many labour hire operators abide by the law and meet their legal obligations to their employees, evidence indicates that there may be significant lawlessness within the industry, with a number of jurisdictions mandating licensing schemes in an attempt to mitigate the most egregious examples of this poor behaviour, including harassment; wage theft; and serious workplace health and safety risks," the report says.

In a chapter devoted to workforce arrangements in the mining sector, the committee said there was ample evidence to show an increased reliance on fly-in-fly-out or FIFO workforces and "contractual and labour hire" employment.

The Newcastle Herald has reported widely on the growth of labour hire in the Hunter mining industry - a "sleeper" issue until class actions seeking wage recovery, including the CFMEU's Rossato and Skene cases, and the non-union case led by Simon Turner at BHP's Mount Arthur mine at Muswellbrook - triggered a three-year national debate.

The push against labour hire workers on year-long full-time rosters being employed as "casuals" suffered a massive blow in March this year when One Nation senators voted with the federal government to pass legislation retrospectively protecting employers from payouts that had been estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Labor-chaired committee said "there is something seriously and systemically wrong when more than half of BHP's national mine site workforce is hired through labour hire and other external contractors, rising to more than 70 per cent at BHP's Australian coal operations".

"When even the Minerals Council of Australia admits that the pay gap for labour hire casuals to direct host employees is 24 per cent, and the CFMMEU says it is as high as 40 per cent, it is clear the plague of labour hire is not just about flexibility, but is about driving down pay and conditions for mineworkers," the report said.

Citing a range of evidence to prove the increase in casualisation in mining, it referred to a 2020 report by the McKell Institute - a self-described "progressive" think tank - that used the ABS figures to say that the growth of casualisation in mining exceeded all other industries.

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), on the other hand, said the industry had "a high share of permanent and full-time employees".

The MCA said 84 per cent of mining workers were permanent employees compared with 78 per cent for all industries, while 96 per cent of mining workers were employed full-time, compared to 68 per cent for all industries.

The submission from the Mining and Energy division of the CFMEU noted the wide variation in estimates and said it believed 30 per cent of all NSW coal jobs were casual labour hire, and 50 per cent in Queensland.

EARLIER HEARINGS:

The report noted that employers agreed with unions that casuals received less pay and inferior conditions than permanent employees.

The report quoted the national president of the Australian Workers Union, Dan Walton, as saying: "Employers usually say that labour hire needs to be used because it's flexible and it allows them to fill specific skills shortages, but that's not necessarily the practical reality of what's playing out on the ground.

"More often than not, we see labour hire used as a way of preventing workers from having access to the same pay and conditions that other workers on the site have under existing enterprise bargaining agreements."

The committee noted evidence from a CFMEU member that labour hire workers were likely to suffer if they reported safety problems at work, but this was disputed by the managing director of major labour hire firm One Key Resources, Ben Lewis, who described his workforce as "quite vocal" in safety matters "if there were any".

Against this, the ACTU contended there was ample evidence to show that "insecure work is not safe work".

In its interim recommendations, the committee wants the federal government to research the impacts of casualisation on the industry and on the employees involved.

It also wants mining companies to look for local workers before considering fly-in-fly-out workforces and to use "best practice" when they do use non-local workforces.

THE INQUIRY WEBSITE IS HERE

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