"Fundamentally the Australian industry has to maintain competitiveness," Mr Fitzgerald said in Perth on Thursday. Had a choice "We had a choice. We went to our workforce. At the workforce request we did a survey and basically the overwhelming decision that they came back with was we prefer to take a salary cut and maintain the rosters, so we didn't go down the path of two and one – we maintain the family-friendly roster."

Labour represented about a third of the mine's costs, Mr Fitzgerald said. West Australian Liberal MP Graham Jacobs, who chaired a parliamentary committee examining the impact of fly-in, fly-out rosters on employee mental health, said it was disappointing Roy Hill was preserving family-friendly rosters at the expense of base salaries. "We [the committee] would be very disappointed in that," Dr Jacobs said. "We weren't looking for improvements in FIFO work systems and arrangements as a quid pro quo to a pay cut. We we were looking for industry to recognise that they have a duty of care and to address work systems that add to fatigue." We felt it was more important for our people to retain their job rather than pursue workforce reductions as a cost-saving strategy in response to market conditions. Roy Hill chief executive Barry Fitzgerald

The committee wanted the resources industry to embrace family-friendly rosters and recommended construction rosters be cut back significantly. Mr Fitzgerald said Australia was facing an "international competitiveness imperative". Must address cost structure "Australia needs to address its cost structure. Whether that be through the costs of regulatory regime, whether that be the cost of construction or workplace efficiencies or productivity, Australia needs to address how it will become more internationally competitive," he said. "There is no doubt about that. With all due respect to the [FIFO] inquiry, there has to be a separation between the health issues and what the country can and can not afford or what it can or cannot do to remain internationally competitive."

Mr Fitzgerald would not guarantee Roy Hill would not cut jobs even after slashing pay and conceded it might never employ 2000 people. "We will not guarantee that no jobs will go," he said. "We need to refocus what we are doing. There may well be process improvement. There are pieces of technology which we are strongly pursuing. We believe technology is the way of the future. I think there is going to be inevitable change in the industry that will accelerate in the next six, five years in particular and next 10 years enormously." About 40 per cent of Roy Hill's 930 workforce will be spared salary cuts. They are workers on lower remuneration.

More important "We felt it was more important for our people to retain their job rather than pursue workforce reductions as a cost-saving strategy in response to market conditions," Mr Fitzgerald said. The resources boom increased salaries to a level "which were not sustainable in the long term", he said. "Reducing base salaries for existing and future employees is a prudent measure in today's market, as it establishes a remuneration structure which supports us to remain a competitive, long-term business."

Lower iron ore prices have hurt profitability across the sector. Mr Fitzgerald said Construction at Roy Hill was 85 per cent complete and it remained on track to ship its first ore by the end of September. Loading Roy Hill management had said earlier the mine would have a peak workforce of about 2000 people on site. Now read why Gina Rinehart believes Australia should be more like India.