A SENIOR resource industry leader today warned in a meeting of the sector’s employers not to lose sight of the importance of productivity in their labour arrangements.
Addressing the AREEA 2011 National Conference on the Gold Coast, AREEA CEO Steve Knott, said labour productivity in the mining industry had been declining steadily for the past five years.
“It is vitally important to the sustainable long-term growth of the resource industry for labour productivity to be the forefront of decision making when it comes to negotiating new workplace agreements and engaging new workers into the future,” Mr Knott said.
“It is concerning to see the increasing incidence of agreements being struck, which seem to have been developed with the sole purpose of securing the supply of workers.
“While such agreements may meet short-term objectives, they are potentially failing to adequately take into consideration the more long-term strategic objectives of the industry.
