‘The Big Australian’ limiting how much grog its FIFO workers can drink? How unAustralian! Plus more tips from the Crikey bunker.
BHP calls last drinks An interesting scoop in the Financial Times about a dispute between the Australian Workers’ Union and BHP over the issue of off-the-clock drinking for fly-in fly-out workers. The company is prohibiting beer in staff accommodation after 9.30pm and limiting workers to four standard drinks a day, a move the AWU is opposing on the grounds it infringes on the workers’ right to privacy and treats them “like children”.
It raises interesting questions about the conflicts between individual freedom and responsibility and what constitutes a reasonable requirement from a workplace to provide a safe environment. Further — along with the gig economy, the COVID expansion of work from home and the embedded intrusion of work-enabling technology in everyone’s personal lives — it goes to the forever blurring line between what constitutes a worker’s personal time and what constitutes work time. For whatever reason, the freedom warriors of Australian politics seem reasonably happy to let this one through to the keeper.
It’s an interesting insight into what FT readers see when they picture Australian miners — our favourites from the comment section:
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