Fair Work ruling impact to BHP is still up in the air says iron ore boss Tim Day

The boss of BHP’s most lucrative division is unsure how much damage the Fair Work Commission’s ‘same job, same pay’ ruling will wreak.

Tim Day, who oversees BHP’s vast Western Australian iron ore operations, said the Big Australian has “a lot of work to go through” in deciphering the ruling on Monday covering three of the company’s coal mines in Queensland.

“We haven’t got those (Fair Work) orders yet, so we’ll work through those,” he said on Wednesday.

“We haven’t got (the orders) yet, but when get them, we’ll understand.”

Unions leveraged the Albanese Government’s ‘same job, same pay’ legislation to secure a victory in the FWC that the Australian Council of Trade Unions boasted would have “flow-on effect throughout the mining industry”.

BHP is now on the hook for an extra $66 million in wage rises per year spread across more than 2000 workers at three of its Queensland coal mines, with the potential for further financial impacts across its broader Australian portfolio.

BHP had hoped to rely on carve-outs in the legislation for specialised contractors to be exempt from FWC orders.

Numerous industry sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity on Tuesday, were divided over what the ruling could mean for Australia’s mining industry.

Some believe it will drastically change the mining services contractor model that has served the local mining industry well for decades, while others believe it’s specific to the unique nature of BHP’s coal mines it runs in partnership with Mitsubishi.

This BHP-Mitsubishi joint venture essentially contracts operational work out to subsidiaries controlled by BHP.