A CANBERRA law firm says it about to lodge the necessary documents and will kick off a “$50 million” class action against casual employment in the coal industry at the Beresfield Bowling Club today. (Tuesday).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Federal Court action launched by Adero Law and backed by UK litigation funder Augusta Ventures Ltd grew out of a campaign by a former Mount Arthur casual, Simon Turner, who was badly injured in a December 2015 truck accident at the mine while employed by labour hire firm Chandler Macleod.
The Newcastle Herald wrote a series of articles in 2016 about Mr Turner’s efforts to highlight the plight of casual mineworkers. He says that while much of the industry – employers, regulators and the mineworkers’ union – has been ignoring or disputing what he was saying, the Canberra law firm has not.
READ MORE: 2016: Inside Mount Arthur coalmine
After looking at Mr Turner’s claims, lawyer Rory Markham says a substantial proportion of the NSW and Queensland coalmining workforce are employed under conditions that are at odds with the Black Coal Industry Mining Award 2010 and The Fair Work Act 2009.
Although numerous enterprise agreements have been registered allowing casual employment in the mines, the award says mineworkers must be employed “full-time” or “part-time”, with staff positions such as supervisors, surveyors, chemists and technicians the only ones to be employed as “casuals”.
“The action we are launching is the first of several in the pipeline and it will reveal an industry-wide problem,” Mr Markham said.
He said the conditions at Mount Arthur were far from unique in the coal industry and Adero was looking at legal action against another big miner, Glencore, and its contractors, Programmed and Skilled, and at Coal & Allied and its recruitment company SubZero.
He said some mines had as many as 40 per cent of their workforce classed as casuals.
“This is yet another chapter in the increasing loss of job security for Australian workers and the loss of all the benefits that permanent classification affords,” Mr Markham said.
Adero has been advertising throughout the coalfields and holding public information sessions searching for mineworkers to sign up to the legal action. Mr Markham says 400 people have said they wished to join on, and he expected that number could hit 800 or 1500.
The companies Adero says are targeted in the class action have previously said they had not been formally notified of any legal proceedings.
The mineworkers’ union declined to comment.
BHP is also facing a class action from another specialist law firm, Phi Finney McDonald, which argues investors were misled over the 2015 collapse of a dam at the Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil.
Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
