Australia mining giant BHP says the Australian government’s proposed ‘same job, same pay’ policy would cost the organisation up to AUD 1.3 billion a year and would threaten jobs if rushed through parliament, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. The federal government is seeking feedback on the workplace reform, which it plans to legislate later this year, that would see labour-hire workers paid at least as much as directly employed workers doing the same job. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke hit back at BHP’s costings given the policy is not yet finalised.

““BHP estimates the financial impact of SJSP to our Australian operations will be up to $1.3 billion annually. This cost is equivalent to the labour cost of approximately 5000 full-time employees across our operational workforce,” the company said. Burke said it was unclear how the company came to that figure given the legislation had not been finalised.

Mining and Energy Union general president Tony Maher said BHP should be worried its wages bill would go up under the slated reform after replacing thousands of permanent mining jobs with insecure and lower-paid labour-hire workers. “BHP is right to fear that same job, same pay will lift their wages bill because they have been exploiting labour-hire mine workers for years,” Maher said.