BY ISABEL EVERETT
The Miners’ Union is fighting to recover the lost pay of workers at Mount Arthur coal mine near Muswellbrook, after aboriginal and older labour hire mineworkers classified as
vulnerable to COVID, were stranded without pay for months.
BHP reportedly excluded them from the workplace but refused to pay their wages, after announcing a nation-wide policy in April that mineworkers
considered vulnerable to health impacts from COVID - including people aged 65
or over and 50 for indigenous workers, or younger if they had an underlying
health condition – would be provided with paid leave and directed to stay home.
Labour hire workers on BHP sites employed through labour hire
firms were covered by the policy, but BHP stopped providing for their wages
from July 1.
For affected workers at Mount Arthur, labour hire company Chandler
Macleod also refused to cover their pay or provide alternative work, leaving
these workers with no pay and no ability to return to work.
CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District has launched legal
proceedings against labour hire company Chandler Macleod and BHP’s Mount Arthur
Coal on behalf of eight members, including Aboriginal workers in their 50s,
workers aged over 65 and workers with underlying health conditions.
BHP is in the process of returning the excluded employees to work,
but they have been left without pay for nearly 12 weeks from July to September
with both BHP and Chandler Macleod refusing to pay.
Many of the labour hire employees are casual, meaning they had no
accrued holidays or entitlements to fall back on.
The Union is arguing that the actions of both BHP and Chandler
Macleod contravene discrimination provisions in the Fair Work Act because the
workers had been excluded from the workplace and suffered loss due to due to
their race, age and physical disability.
District President Peter Jordan said that a program intended to
protect vulnerable workers had resulted in them losing tens of thousands of
dollars in income.
“BHP’s stated aim was to protect vulnerable workers from the
health effects of COVID and that’s a worthwhile aim,” said Mr Jordan.
“But it has exposed BHP’s disgraceful practice of employing at
least half its workforce through insecure and casualised labour hire
arrangements, resulting in serious financial loss for these workers.
“These workers have been performing the same work as direct BHP
employees at Mt Arthur and BHP could and should have continued to cover their
pay as it has done for its direct workforce.
“Instead, they have been dropped like a hot potato, with neither the mine operator nor the labour hire employer taking any responsibility for their situation.
“BHP should be ashamed of its treatment of these indigenous and older workers it claims to be protecting.
“It is discrimination and we will be fighting to recover their lost wages.”
Mount Arthur Coal Mine, Image Credit: BHP
