AWA offer at Pilbara may see BHP paying twice!
On Monday September 2, BHP offered all of its workers at its Pilbara Iron Ore mines individual work contracts (Australian Workplace Agreements - - AWAs). Workers who were already on WA state individual workplace agreements were handed their contracts at various presentations about the offer. Workers covered by a collective union-negotiated Award were informed that they had to apply for a hard copy of the company's offer if they were interested in one. The company was reluctant to hand every Award worker a copy after last year's offer of individual contracts resulted in Award workers burning some 560 contracts that they had refused to sign at the gates of BHP's Port Hedland and Newman sites. A year on BHP is apparently still a little touchy about the whole episode. The present offer for Award workers is an immediate pay increase of about 13 per cent on signing an individual contract. The union is confident that no Award worker will sign. For the current workers on workplace agreements the offer went something like this: Workers were offered two letters. The first one contained confirmation of their salary review under the workplace agreement, which increased their current workplace agreement salary by about 4.2 per cent in most instances. This salary is theirs regardless of whether they sign the AWA or not. The second letter then had the AWA offer in it. To sign an AWA they were then offered on average about 7.5 per cent more. Workers on workplace agreements were also given a 9 percent bonus one month ago in August. BHP had to offer this money because of the recent increases that the Unions achieved through the new Award. In the recent Award case handed down in July, unions achieved the following: * 20% pay increase; * 6% increase in superannuation to total employer contributions of 14%; * 7.5% bonus for those who choose to participate in the individual performance assessment scheme. It should be noted that about 98% of Award workers refused to be part of this warped scheme. * BHP is required to allow Unions structures to exist and operate; * BHP must respect and observe collective bargaining rights; * Protections in all the key areas. To keep the AWA ahead of the new Award they had to offer another lot of money to make the AWA appear more attractive than the union negotiated Award. This is good news for all Award workers. Under the new WA State "fair laws", unions are now able to go after any money that is put on the table by BHP for AWA workers. These new "fair laws" allow equal work for equal pay principles which had virtually been outlawed under the old Liberal Party laws. Now the unions can pursue the 7.5 per cent that was offered by BHP as a carrot to sign onto an AWA. If BHP do not get the message then the unions should be able to seek an order under the new laws through the Commission. The new fair state laws mean that BHP has created a system on site that can only continue to increase wages of Award workers. BHP knows that the only way they can keep workers on individual contracts is by offering an increase above the Award. The new fair laws should enable the unions to pick that increase up for Award workers. Back in 1999 the State Government and employers set out to destroy the unions in the West. Initially the employers made some gains in luring workers onto individual contracts and shutting out the unions. "Unions here are better organised than ever before and we are now back in at Hamersley Iron. Not only that, but now they've paid twice for a deunionisation result they never got", said one proud unionist. "If those responsible for the dispute were horses they would already be in the truck and on their way to the glue factory."