Glencore responds to Union comments on Copper Refinery Enterprise Agreement

Media release
Brisbane, Queensland

Glencore rejects the comments from the AWU Queensland Secretariat on worker recruitment, the copper smelter agreement and enterprise bargaining negotiations as misleading and out of touch with economic reality.

We have been very clear on all these topics.

1. Worker Recruitment

• Glencore is proud to be one of the largest local employers in the Mount Isa region (2,145 direct locally based jobs) and wants to attract as many people as possible to live in the region.
• Our preference is to fill job vacancies at MIM with local residents where they possess the necessary skills and abilities.
• The AWU may not like it, but the reality is that the combination of a national skills shortage and a workers’ preference for FIFO and DIDO roles is making it hard for us to recruit for jobs based in Mount Isa.
• Since October 2025, Glencore has offered 270 permanent jobs to people based locally, many of these have been conversion of FIFO contractors into local jobs.
• The 120 skilled job vacancies are being advertised in both Australia and overseas.
• Anyone recruited from overseas will be paid the same as local employees and are recruited to live locally with their families which supports the towns local residential population.
• Perhaps the AWU has forgotten that Mount Isa and Mount Isa Mines (MIM) was built by generations of Australian and skilled multicultural labour with over 52 different nationalities represented in Mount Isa in the 1970s. The AWU objecting to overseas recruitment where skilled labour can’t be found locally or in Australia is pure hypocrisy. 

2. The A$600M Copper Smelter Agreement:

• Smelters and refineries across Australia  are at a breaking point which is why Federal and State Governments have acted to ensure these strategic assets continue to operate.
• The global copper smelting and refining markets are fiercely competitive, and Australia is trying to compete with other countries that provide massive subsidies to facilities to operate.
• The copper smelter agreement for Mount Isa is a short-term lifeline only.
• Even with the support under the agreement - the Mount Isa Copper Smelter and Townsville Copper Refinery continue to lose money due to the continued decline of Treatment and Refining Charges and shortage of available copper concentrates.
• Linking the current Enterprise Agreement (EA) negotiations to the A$600M smelter agreement as a rationale for wage increases is astounding - without the agreement the smelter would have closed, and the smelter jobs would have been lost.

3. Enterprise Bargaining at MIM:

• We want to acknowledge the constructive approach being adopted by the local EA bargaining representatives.
• Our ability to offer wage increases must be balanced with the overarching goal of continuing to run the operations over the long term, which in turn provides direct and indirect benefits for the entire region as well as our workforce.
• Glencore is currently discussing proposals for annual salary increases for workers at MIM. The EA must pass the Government’s Better Off Overall Test (BOOT Test) which means that each employee must be better off overall than the award and benefit from the EA overall.
• We currently exceed the Award standards in several conditions, including:​
  • Annual Leave​
  • Long Service Leave​
  • Compassionate Leave​
  • Payment of Sick Leave on Termination (15 years and above)​
  • Redundancy entitlement​s
  • Salaries

We urge the AWU Queensland Secretariat to support good faith negotiations with MIM representatives and not turn this EA negotiation into political grandstanding.