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Join the campaign – Part 1
What is Same Job Same Pay?
In Australia, some large employers including many mining companies pay labour hire workers less than permanent workers for doing the same job. This is due to a legal loophole allowing employers to avoid paying agreed rates by outsourcing work to labour hire contractors.
There is a legitimate role for labour hire to cover genuine work surges, short-term needs or specialist services. However, it has become a common business model for some employers to replace permanent, on-going jobs with labour hire, simply to cut wages.
This occurs in industries across the economy, but mining is a glaring example because it is so widespread; and because the difference in pay between permanent and labour hire employees performing the same work is often so substantial.
The new Same Job Same Pay laws are about closing the legal loopholes that allow employers to pay labour hire workers less; by ensuring that labour hire workers are paid at rates at least equivalent to host site Enterprise Agreements.
Large companies have used labour hire loopholes in Australia to pay some of their workforce less for doing the exact same job.
This has held workers’ wages and conditions back while corporate profits have grown.
Same Job Same Pay for labour hire workers will close the loophole and help wages rise.
About the Closing Loopholes Bill
The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 passed through the Senate on 7 December 2023.
The legislation passed after the Closing Loopholes Bill was split into two parts, with Same Job Same Pay passing (SJSP) in the first part at the end of 2023, alongside other important measures like the criminalisation of wage theft and industrial manslaughter, and stronger rights for workplace delegates.
Same Job Same Pay will work by your union applying to the Fair Work Commission for Same Job Same Pay in your workplace. Same Job Same Pay orders can only be issued at sites where permanent employees are covered by an Enterprise Agreement. There are exemptions for registered trainees and apprentices, short-term placements, small businesses and genuine specialist contractors.
These changes have strong support from unions, who have seen firsthand the misuse of labour hire and casualisation in some of Australia’s biggest and most profitable companies. As well as restoring rights to workers, the new laws will level the playing field for businesses already doing the right thing.
The Bill was opposed by large mining companies and the Minerals Council who argued that the policy will increase their costs and make it more difficult for them to compete.
Same Job Same Pay will only increase the wages bills of those companies who have used labour hire loopholes to cut wages and undermine collective bargaining. Mining company claims that it will remove incentives and rewards for workers with more skills and experience are nonsense.
Help us win Same Job Same Pay at your worksite
The new laws are not about putting a ceiling on how much workers can be paid, it’s about strengthening the floor; ensuring that labour hire workers are not used to undercut wages achieved through bargaining.
Same Job Same Pay orders issued by the Fair Work Commission will commence operation in November 2024. There has never been a better time to be involved and be talking to your workmates about joining to put your worksite in the best position to be prioritised for an application made by the MEU.
Please browse our site to read more facts about Same Job Same Pay.
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