Electrical workers vote on generational BHP Pilbara action

11th March 2026 - Perth, WA

• 60 high-voltage electrical workers are on wildly disparate individual contracts  

• Bargaining for equality and certainty has been ‘slow walked’ by BHP for a year  

• Workers to vote on protected action by 25 March  

Sixty electrical workers are taking on the world’s largest mining company in Western Australia’s Pilbara, filing paperwork on Wednesday for a ballot on the first industrial action at a major mining company in the region since the Fair Work Act was introduced in 2009.  

The high-voltage electrical workers are responsible for maintaining a power network that keeps BHP mine sites running, along with worker accommodation, and the nearby town of Newman.  

The workers are seeking their first workplace agreement, having been employed on disparate common-law contracts over the past two decades, with variance of more than 30 percent between people doing the same work.  

Their current conditions subject to unilateral change by the company at any time, and some are provided at the discretion of individual managers.  

The workers are seeking an agreement that:  

• Protects current conditions in an agreement rather than relying on managerial whim  

• Provides transparent annual pay adjustments 

• Describes classifications with objective, measurable paths to progression  

• Provides recognition of travel time, higher duties and time spent on call  

The ballot follows a year of protracted bargaining between the workers and the global mining giant with little progress towards an agreement.  

The workers will vote to make available actions including:  

• Bans on issuing permits  

• Bans on new switching programs  

• On-call and overtime bans  

• High-risk work bans such as working at heights  

• Refusal to use vehicles fitted with video surveillance equipment  

• Bans on attending management-led meetings excluding safety meetings  

• Work stoppages lasting between 15 minutes and 48 hours  

The proposed actions will not be taken in any situation where the safety of workers or the community may be threatened.  

Voting on the ballot will close on Wednesday 25 March.    

Electrical Trades Union West Australian Secretary Adam Woodage praised the courage of the small group of workers standing up to the world’s largest mining conglomerate.  

 “High-voltage electrical workers at BHP do an extraordinary job in tough conditions and remote locations,” Mr Woodage said.  

“For decades their employer has maintained a system of playing them off against one another with unequal individual contracts that provide no certainty or transparency, and place enormous power in the hands of individual managers to build empires through favouritism. 

“At the same time BHP were putting up numbers that ordinary people can’t comprehend - $10 billion in profit in the past year.  

“A little over a year ago sixty men and women said they wouldn’t take any more of it. Since that day BHP has stonewalled, delayed and frustrated the bargaining process at every opportunity.  

“They thought that the days of their employees taking industrial action in the Pilbara were history. They were wrong.”  

Electrical Trades Union National Secretary Michael Wright said the entire union and its membership was behind BHP workers.  

“Working people like the 60 ETU members at BHP are the engine room of the Australian resources sector and its global strength.  

“When companies deal with them fairly they flourish. When a company attempts to divide and dismiss them, it undermines its own strength.  

“Electrical workers at BHP have had basic conditions applied at the sole discretion of the company and its individual managers for far too long.  

“They are fighting for basic equal treatment and transparency, and the fact that has progressed from a discussion to an argument is a sad reflection on the conduct of the second-largest company on the ASX.”  

CONTACT: Lachlan Williams 0447 682 027 lachlan@theshapeagency.com.au