Protesters gatecrash BHP meeting over pay, coal mining
BHP has been criticised over its use of labour hire workers and for seeking to extend coal mining projects, as protests erupt outside its annual meeting in Brisbane
Hundreds of protesters have descended on BHP’s annual general meeting to decry the company’s use of labour hire and climate action credentials.
The Mining and Energy Union has been involved in a legal stoush with Australia’s biggest mining company about its use of labour hire firms, applying for contractors to be paid at the same rate as the regular workforce under the government’s “same job, same pay” laws.
About 500 MEU members marched outside the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane where BHP shareholders were meeting on Wednesday.
MEU national secretary Grahame Kelly said BHP was at odds with the rest of corporate Australia, with major employers such as Qantas and Kmart agreeing to close the labour hire “loophole”.
“BHP is out of step with all of corporate Australia,” he told protesters.
“They’e insisting on fighting ‘same job, same pay’ in the courts.
“It can only be to extend the pain and suffering of those workers at OS (BHP subsidiary Operations Services).
“This is an outdated scam, BHP. It’s time to pay up.”
About two dozen climate protesters called out BHP for its continued use of coal while the company spruiked its green credentials.
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Zaida Variava, spokesperson of anti-fossil fuel activists Lock the Gate Alliance, called BHP’s climate transition action plan a “comprehensive piece of greenwash”.
“Far from establishing a real plan to move away from fossil fuels, this so-called climate transition plan will lock in coal mining for the next 90 years, well into the 2100s,” she said.
“What a joke. What an insult to everyone who understands the existential threat we are facing down together.”
BHP is seeking government approval for extensions to the Central Queensland coal mine projects of Caval Ridge, Peak Downs and Saraji.
The company says it is on track to meet its targets of a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero operational emissions by 2050.
