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Mr Simon Turner was an employee of Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company, and worked at the Mt Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley.

The mine owner BHP and his employer called him a casual, even though he worked on the same long-term coal production roster and had the same duties and responsibilities as BHP’s permanent full-time workers, doing the same job.

After being severely injured on a mine site, Simon discovered that he was not getting workers’ injury compensation, accident pay and other entitlements that are part of the Black Coal Award.

In fact, his employer did not even classify Simon as a coal miner and instead classified him as office administration, apparently to lower the workers’ compensation premiums. Simon lost all the benefits of the Black Coal Mining Award including  workers’ injury compensation.

During our investigation into the issues surrounding Simon, we uncovered a number of actions that you should take to ensure that you are being protected from similar unscrupulous practices. This checklist can help you to be sure that you are being treated fairly and are covered in case of a workplace accident:

Transcript

[Malcolm]

Hi, I want to discuss a story of enormous courage and resilience that brought such anger to me and such tears. The whole industrial relations system is broken and complicit in what is happening to people. The deeper issue affects 10s of thousands of men and women, right around this country, especially in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley.

I worked in one of the industries that this is involved with from the age of 18 to 53 and I have never seen anything like this. The exploitation, the abuse, the negligence, it’s horrific, it’s unethical, immoral, and unlawful with deliberate breaches of laws.

I want to introduce Simon Turner, who’s been fighting this for six years, and he’s going to tell us his story. And I also want to introduce Stuart Bonds, who has developed the trust in the Hunter Valley and he came to us with it and because he did listen to people, and he’s been pushing it at a time when state and federal governments had abandoned it.

BHP had abandoned its responsibilities, Chandler Macleod Group, the CFMMEU in the Hunter Valley has abandoned its people. Politicians, state and federal, labor and liberal have avoided this issue and done enormous damage. So Simon, can you tell us your story please?

[Simon]

I worked for Chandler MacLeod which is a labour hire company at Mount Arthur, BHP Billiton Coal Mine in Hunter Valley, largest black coal mine in New South Wales. I was severely injured at work, while working in dusty conditions.

I was asked by the BHP Superintendent of Coal not to report my injury, which was clearly a lost time injury. They asked me to come into work and not report my injury at all and BHP weren’t going to report it. Now my employer Chandler Macleod, they didn’t report my injury at all which they both have the same duty of care to report anyone that’s injured at work.

Now, they can’t ask someone not to come into work if they’re injured because that’s also a breach of workplace laws, which they clearly don’t care about. They just get people to do what they need them to do so they don’t record a lost time injury for the mine site.

I started at HVO and then moved to Mount Arthur open cut. I enjoyed my job, I loved it a lot. And then one day we were working in conditions that were very dusty, I was hit by the coal digger because he couldn’t see me.

Now the pit was shut down for dust we were still operating ’cause they “still had to get coal out” as they say, he did not see me as there was too much coal dust and hit a metre behind the back of where I was operating the truck and my injuries are swollen discs L3, 4, 5, pinched sciatic nerve, pinched cranial nerve and a lateral tear in one of the discs, that’s leaking fluid into my spine, and then that nerve damage goes all the way down my left leg.

My left leg collapses without any notice and I’ll just drop. I also have severe depression and PTSD caused by what happened that day.

[Stuart]

So I’m in the coal industry, so I know what’s meant to happen. But do you want to tell us what did actually happen to you?

[Simon]

Well, what happened that day, I was taken back into the first aid and emergency area at the mine site, they then called an ambulance. So I was taken to Muswellbrook Hospital via ambulance. I got there, and they assessed me. I was sucking on the green puffer whistle for pain.

They wanted to do X-rays, so a doctor came in and saw me, and gave me some medication for the pain. And they were going to do X-rays at Muswellbrook Hospital, but then they told me that the X-ray machine wasn’t working. Someone from BHP then turned up at the hospital and he waited there.

The doctor said, “Well, you can go, you got to go and have X-rays. We can’t do the X rays here, you’ll be off for a couple of weeks.” So we go back to the mine site and on the journey back in the car, I was asked if I’d go meet with the Coal Superintendent.

I said, “Yep, okay.” When we got back there, I met him in his office. He said to me, “How are you?” I said, “Pretty sore.” He said, “Listen, I don’t want you to report this. We’ve had too many LTIs.” That’s a lost time injury He said, “Don’t report it, we’re not going to report it, and the way the industry is at the moment, if you report it, you won’t have a job.”

So that’s what happened. Then, they told me to come into the next lot of rostered shifts that I had. Just come into work sign on, I’d only have to stay there for four hours and then they’d send me home and they’d make sure that I got paid. So I went in.

The following day, on day shift for four hours I sat there on a steel metal bench, did nothing. On the night shift someone came out, the fill in OCE and asked me to sign a return-to-work programme, and I didn’t even know what injuries I had, I still hadn’t had the X-rays.

No one knew what was wrong with me, and they wanted me to go back out into the pit and start working.

[Stuart]

So why do you think they wanted you to come back for the four hours?

[Simon]

Well that way, a lost time injury, what we know now is that superintendents and supervisors within the mining industry, their coal bonus is directly related in the amount payable with regards to lost time injuries, so the least lost time injuries, the more bonus they get.

[Stuart]

So lost time injuries in a day lost when the employee can’t come back into work. So when you come back to work, you’re counted as being, worked that day.

[Simon]

Yep.

[Stuart]

Even though you sat on a cold steel bench sticking stickers on hard hat.

[Simon]

I didn’t stick anything, I just sat there. I didn’t stick anything on anything. I actually-

[Malcolm]

You’re in pain

[Simon]

Yeah, in pain. And I actually I was on a fair bit of medication. I went and seen the the ambulance guy. He was on site there at the mine site full time, he gave me a heat pack, that was it, it’s all I had.

And then I never went back after that day ’cause I refused to sign the return-to-work plan because when I looked at it, I didn’t know who done it, it wasn’t done in consultation with myself. It wasn’t done with a doctor. I didn’t even have a doctor at that time.

And my employer who was supposedly Chandler Macleod, hadn’t even spoken to me, so.

[Malcolm]

Now Simon as I understand that you’ve got some graphs which we’re going to put in the video. Can you tell us about those graphs for 20… On the year of your injury?

[Simon]

The year of my injury and the year prior to that and for another two years after my injury, the statistics show for LTIs recorded in the mining industry. When I was injured and I know other people have been injured because they have contacted me, I say there were zero LTIs.

[Malcolm]

And we’ve talked to some of those people.

[Simon]

Yeah, you’ve spoken to them, and they’ll come forward and there’s a lot of people.

[Stuart]

Zero injuries at that mine?

[Simon]

In the whole Hunter Valley. Not just that mine, in the whole Hunter Valley and there is hundreds of injuries, reportable injuries, LTIs where people have not gone to work.

Now, the important thing with that those statistics are coming from Coal Mines Insurance and Coal Services because they’re the monopoly insurer for the industry. Now, when my claim has been put through, it hasn’t been put through on that. I’m not a coal miner I’m employed in the New South Wales Statutory System. So-

[Stuart]

You don’t show up in the mining statistics

[Simon]

It doesn’t show up.

[Stuart]

Under the Black Coal Award as a worker in a coal mine, I know that you’re afforded 78 weeks of accident pay under the Black Coal Award and specialised treatment for your injuries. And that’s given from the monopoly insurer, which is Coal Mines Insurance. So what did you actually receive?

[Simon]

I’ve been receiving $400 per week from two other insurers, at first started out as CGU and then change to GIO, New South Wales Statutory Insurer. So I haven’t received any of the Coal Mine entitlements of the full wage for 78 weeks.

So it’s below the poverty line, what I’ve been living on the whole time. Our Enterprise Agreement had provisions in it for 78 weeks accident pay, which is straight from the Award.

[Stuart]

Can you return to work?

[Simon]

I can’t return to work. I’ve been demmed TPD

[Malcolm]

Totally and Permanently Disabled?

[Simon]

Yeah, I can’t work

[Stuart]

So your $400 is-

[Simon]

$400 a week is for life. That’s it. That’s all I get.

[Malcolm]

That’s $20,000 a year, where you were earning about 92,000 earning less than a quarter.

[Simon]

Yeah. So and that’s… had massive ramifications. for me personally,

[Stuart]

So who’s paying? If it’s not Coal Mines Insurance, who’s paying you, who is paying?

[Simon]

The New South Wales State Government has been paying an injured coal miner from the day that I got injured and the claim was filed with CJU

[Malcolm]

And so that’s the uninsured workers?

[Simon]

Yeah.

[Malcolm]

The uninsured workers-

[Simon]

Uninsured Liability Scheme, that’s where I get paid from.

[Malcolm]

So that’s mums and dads who own small businesses and pay workers compensation, premiums are going up, they’re paying for your injury from a multinational company that’s foreign owned and avoiding its responsibilities. And that’s why your workers compensation premiums for small businesses are going up.

[Simon]

And I’m not the only one. There are a lot more people exactly employed with Chandler Macleod and worked at BHP Mount Arthur.

[Malcolm]

And we met with eight of them when we went to Williamtown near Newcastle, and we listened to 8, the bullying, the harassment, the intimidation, the injuries, were just gross. These people some of them are shattered.

[Stuart]

Yeah, we’re not talking broken fingers here, we’re talking broken backs, legs broken in half severe, permanent…

[Simon]

Bullying and harassment it’s-

[Malcolm]

And people who shake and tremble when you talk to them.

[Simon]

Yeah, there’ve been suicides, we know of suicides that have happened.

[Stuart]

The accident pays there to tie you over until you can return to work. Obviously, deemed TPD you can’t return to work, on $400 a week, running out of money, losing your house. What happened at that point?

[Simon]

Oh, that point. I was about to be evicted. I’ve been deemed TPD so I can’t work again. So I called Coal LSL to check on what long service leave I had accrued. They then tell me that I’m not accruing any because I was sacked. And I said, “Okay.” Now my employer terminated my employment a week after I was injured.

They sent a Separation Certificate to Centerlink. They notified AUS Coal superannuation in January of 16, that I was terminated. They terminated my employment to Coal LSL on the 7th of January 2016. And I find out six months later that I was sacked. I was the last person that got told I was sacked. So they tell everybody else except me.

It’s illegal to sack anyone within six months of them being injured and on workers compensation. So not only have they not paid me what I’m entitled to I’ve been paid from a policy that can’t cover me.

They’ve also sacked me and haven’t told me. On the separation certificate, they say, there’s a question on there, has a workers compensation claim been made or will one be made in the future? And they tick no, and this was filled out six months after I’d been on workers comp.

[Malcolm]

So how did you feel when you find all this stuff out and you’re about to be thrown out your house?

[Simon]

I just couldn’t believe anyone, could be so ruthless and do something like this. I just wanted to give up that’s probably why, you know, the depression and everything and that sets in, I didn’t want to live. Yeah, three times I’ve thought about killing myself.

[Stuart]

So whilst you’re on workers comp, you’re not meant to be getting your entitlements whilst you’re on it. You’re super’s meant to be paid your long service leave still meant to be accruing. So that’s how you found out that you’re sacked? That you weren’t, those entitlements

[Simon]

I found out through Coal LSL only because I rang up six months later. That’s how I found out and then I find out that none of those entitlements

[Stuart]

Were accruing.

[Simon]

Were accruing, all gone.

[Malcolm]

Okay, Simon, so let me just check with you. You were… You’ve lost your Award entitlements and protections, you’re 40% underpaid compared with your BHP employees doing the same job, same responsibilities, same duties, right next to you. And your Coal LSL Long Service Leave provisions were under reported.

And when I asked them questions about that, they had never done an audit on individuals. They – They hadn’t done an audit. And then when they did an audit after I pursued them in senate estimates, they came back and admitted that you were correct. Is that correct?

[Simon]

Correct. Everything was correct.

[Stuart]

So our entire industrial relations system is set up with a series of checks and balances, because we have a federal award and we have to make sure the awards are minimum standard.

So to check all this, you’ve got the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman, you’ve got union bosses that go to negotiations, you’ve got your HR department of your labour hire companies, you’ve got mine safety inspectors, lawyers, senators the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, Coal Mines Insurance, Coal Services, Workers Compensation Independent Review Office, which is WIRO, you’ve got the media.

How many of these people have you engaged with and told them what’s going on?

[Simon]

All of them, hundreds of emails.

[Malcolm]

There’s even two more points I would raise. You forgot the Local Federal Member, Joel Fitzgibbon. Now he illustrates what was going on here, because I’ve written to him, he hasn’t responded.

[Simon]

I wrote to him six times.

[Malcolm]

You’ve written to him six times. and in the interactions we’ve had through the media, we’ve explained the enormous scale of this problem, the depth of the problem, he’s come back and said, “Roberts doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s just about the casual employment.”

Well, that’s a misrepresentation of what’s going on. But you’ve also got the fact that some of these players enabled this to happen, they actually created the circumstances. The Hunter Valley Branch of the CFMMEU looks like it has set this up.

[Simon]

It’s the only way, it can happen.

[Malcolm]

Yeah, it can’t happen without that. BHP have been complicit, the Chandler Macleod Group have been complicit. They have stolen part of your life from you. The CFMMEU in the Hunter Valley has done the same. Some of the bureaucrats have done the same.

[Stuart]

Well, you’re meant to have the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman overseeing all this, to make sure that this exact scenario doesn’t occur.

[Simon]

But it doesn’t have to get to that point. And this is what they fail to say in some and some of the media and social pages that they like to comment on. Not once have I put it in for dispute before it was voted on. They can’t say oh, you voted on it or they approved it. If it gets put into dispute before it even gets to that point, nothing happens. No one’s employed as a casual.

[Malcolm]

So the system is rotten Simon and Stuart the system is rotten. But worse, there are senior players in the system that actively make it happen. Make the corruption happen.

[Simon]

Correct.

[Stuart]

Okay, so you were talking before about putting agreements into dispute before they even get to the Fair Work Commission, to challenge them, to make sure they’re better off overall. So the union have recently contested an Enterprise Agreement which was for BHP’s in house labour hire firm.

So that was the OS agreement at Mount Arthur Coal, which was exactly the same Coal Mine that you were employed at, exactly the same Coal Mine that they have Chandler MacLeod’s still working alongside them, but it was for more money. Am I correct in saying that?

[Simon]

Yeah, the Chandler Macleod agreement pays even less than what the OS agreement does.

[Stuart]

And the OS agreement was thrown out, because it didn’t meet the better off overall test. Yet, there’s people being paid less than that working on the same mine site.

[Malcolm]

And correct me if I’m wrong. They don’t have the conditions and protections that even the OS Agreement has got in it, but that was thrown out.

[Simon]

Yep. That’s right

[Malcolm]

How does this go on?

[Simon]

Well, there’s a letter from Chandler Macleod to the CFMEU that says, “You will not take any legal action against us now or in the future.

[Stuart]

Yeah.

[Malcolm]

What?

[Simon]

I’m serious.

[Malcolm]

I was an underground coalface miner in the ’70s. in the Hunter Valley, I was a mine manager in the ’80s in the Hunter Valley, I worked in the Hunter Valley as a consultant in the 1990s and in the 2000s. There is no way on earth or even underground that the Coal Miners Union would have let this happen. What did happen?

[Simon]

Well, you would think that but basically, it’s their own business model, the union they own the labour hire company, employing casuals, started out as United Mining Management Services, and then basically progressed on to being owners within Tesa and then selling that model on to a larger company called Skilled.

And then basically endorsing EA’s with casual employment.

[Malcolm]

And the bar graph that the stacked bar graph that we’ll put on the screen here that you showed me yesterday indicated that there’s some pretty dodgy deals happening involving union bosses most likely, making money out of it.

[Simon]

Yeah. it’s … They’re business partners with the big mining companies. They basically, they own Coal Mines Insurance along with the New South Wales Minerals Council, which is all the mine owners. They’re a joint venture of Aus Coal Superannuation with New South Wales and Queensland Minerals Council.

And then you’ve got them on the boards of Coal LSL and Coal Services.

[Stuart]

So if one… We’ve see we’ve seen how easy this is to stop, I mean, you just put the enterprise agreements into dispute, they stop the OS Agreement. So we know it’s possible to happen. So if one person or one government body had done the right thing, this wouldn’t happen. This a eight billion dollar black hole doesn’t exist.

[Simon]

So there’s no external scrutiny whatsoever. They control the whole industry.

[Stuart]

They control their own oversight and auditing. So if the… So this is a mine owner, is in bed with the union, and the government’s turned a blind eye, and you have all got screwed.

[Simon]

Yeah.

[Malcolm]

So some of the mining companies want cheaper labour rates. Some of the dodgy union bosses enable that to happen, and they get a cut on it, by the side. So what we can see here is a need for an investigation of all these entities.

We’ve got Coal LSL, Coal Mines Insurance, We’ve got the State Governments Safety Inspectors, We’ve got Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Commission Ombudsman, we’ve got some politicians that we think, we’ve got union bosses all need investigating.

And what that means is that people are no longer protected by the political, by the industrial or by the unions, and they’re certainly not protected by some of these grubby companies.

What it means is that if this can happen to you and hundreds of people you know, and that we’ve met it can happen to anyone in Australia, it can happen to you.

Over the past 12 months I have been working through an issue and story that has, at times, brought me to tears. It is about a miner, Simon Turner, who was severely injured on site doing his job. The accident left Simon totally and permanently disabled; he can never return to work. But it is also about the tens of thousands of workers across the country who could end up in the same position.

Instead of receiving the support and workers’ compensation we would expect, and that coal miners are entitled to, he has been abandoned. Instead of receiving proper entitlements such as accident pay at a full wage, he lives below the poverty line in a garage. The way this has happened has been unlawful, unjust, immoral and unethical. What we’ve uncovered is that this tragedy can happen to anyone and we must fight to have this gap in our industrial relations laws fixed.

This is Simon’s story. It is the story of how any Australian can be thrown on the scrap heap by all the people and organisations who should be there to protect us.

Simon’s injury

Simon worked for Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company who employed him at Mount Arthur, a BHP Billiton Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley. He was an active person and he recounts that he enjoyed his job. At the time of his injury Simon was working on his shift at the mine driving a coal truck.

A coal digger did not see Simon’s truck because of dusty conditions and struck his vehicle. The massive collision directly injured Simon, causing swollen L3, L4 and L5 discs in his back, a pinched sciatic nerve, pinched cranial nerve and a lateral tear in one of the discs. The lateral tear in his back leaks fluid into the spine and the resulting nerve damage goes all the way down his left leg leaving him permanently in pain. As a result, Simon’s leg collapses without notice and he deals with ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression from that day.

Simon’s injuries have meant he is deemed totally and permanently disabled (TPD) and he cannot return to work.

After the accident he was taken to hospital by ambulance where x-rays were not done due to a broken machine, but a doctor indicated Simon should be off work for at least several weeks. During his return from the hospital a BHP representative asked Simon if he would meet with the coal superintendent. Simon agreed and met with him when he returned to mine site.

Pressure

In that meeting the BHP coal superintendent pressured Simon to not report his injury. He says that there have been too many Lost Time Injuries (LTIs). LTIs are reported incidents where an employee can’t come into work because of an injury.

The coal superintendent tells Simon to not report it, that BHP won’t be reporting it and threatens Simon that the way the industry is now, he won’t have a job if he does report it. Casuals like Simon have no job security.

Simon is later asked to come into his next regular rostered shift, ‘just to ensure he gets paid’. Simon goes to site and sits on a steel metal bench for four hours and does nothing. The following shift, Simon is pressured to sign a return to work program which he refuses. It isn’t clear who has made the return to work plan and it certainly hasn’t been done in consultation with Simon.

At this point Simon still has no doctor, no x-rays, no diagnosis and no idea what injuries he has suffered. In Simon’s words, ‘No one knew what was wrong with me and they wanted me to go back out into the pit and start working.’

All of these factors lead me to believe it was an unethical attempt to avoid reporting an LTI. By Simon returning to work for the four hours, even though he did nothing, the mine avoids reporting an LTI because they say he clocked in and therefore returned to work.

It is unlawful to not report a serious injury.

The flaws in the safety system

We now know that some superintendents and supervisors within the mining industry are paid a safety bonus, which is directly related to the number of LTIs that happen on their watch. The less LTIs, the higher the bonus.

The bonus system creates a perverse incentive for superintendents and supervisors to hide injuries and not report them. Simon has been a victim of this perverse incentive.

At the time of his injury Simon, like most of the employees on site, was classed as a casual/labour hire employee. Yet during the year of his injury and the surrounding years, there are no labour hire company employee LTIs reported.

Some labour hire employers are far more concerned about money than they are about people and especially people who stand up for their rights. Simon was terminated without even being told. He found out six months later indirectly through a government agency.

Some companies are known to understate the number of employees on work sites and to describe miners as ‘administration staff’ to get lower insurance premiums – if we did this what would happen to us?

Tragically, we also know that Simon is not the only affected worker. I’ve personally spoken to seven others from the Hunter region who have found themselves in similar situations and believe there are hundreds more in NSW, Queensland and WA. We aren’t talking about just broken fingers.

Their injuries were debilitating. Broken backs, legs broken in half and a myriad of severe and permanent injuries that left people trembling just from talking about them. There have also been suicides within the group. Simon recounts that, ‘I didn’t want to live … three times I’ve thought about killing myself.’

Recently, I presented a submission to the Queensland Board of Inquiry into the Queensland Grosvenor mine explosion that could have had fatal consequences. Here I pointed out to the Board that casuals are not even represented on safety committees, yet they make up such a large part of the industry today.

Mine owners like BHP Billiton and labour hire companies like Chandler Macleod don’t care about anything but money.

The loophole

Under the Black Coal Award, a worker in a coal mine is afforded accident pay and specialised treatment for injuries. However mines avoid their responsibilities by using labour hire companies for their workforce – they are cheaper and have less job security.

In some ways and in some cases, employees aren’t classed by the work they do or where they work, they are classed based on their employer. Importantly when it comes to accessing award entitlements, the employer must be in or about a coal mine. Employers like the mine owner BHP easily pass this test. However, a labour hire firm like Chandler Macleod, the one that employed Simon, is not considered in or about a coal mine and therefore the protections and entitlements don’t apply.

Some mine owners use and explicitly abuse this to avoid their responsibilities to workers like Simon Turner.

Simon worked side-by-side with BHP employees, doing the same job, on the same long-term rosters, on the same site and he came home every day with clothes covered in black coal dust. We believe the current method of classification for miners has led to hundreds of cases of exploitation – pain, poverty and injustice – and this must be addressed.

Simon has not received his accident pay or the specialised treatment he needs to live as good a life as he can with his injuries. He receives a pathetic disability payment which is below the poverty line.

Simon contacted everyone he could – the mine owner, his employer, the workers’ compensation authority, Coal LSL, the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman, his local federal elected representative Labor’s Joel Fitzgerald MP, local state Labor MP, NSW Ministers, NSW government agencies and many more – all of whom ignored his calls for help.

The people and the organisations that should have cared for him did not, and you could be next.

If it had not been for people who cared like Stuart Bonds of One Nation in NSW, nobody would be standing up for Simon Turner today.

Please watch our full video with Simon to learn a bit more about his case and you will see why One Nation stood up for Simon and why we stand up for everyday Australians like you.

The following is a series of letters sent to BHP, Chandler MacLeod, CFMEU and represetatives, Joel Fitzgibbon MP for Hunter, Federal CFMMEU and Recruit Holdings in relation to the abuse of casual black coal mine workers.

Jump to:

Anthony Albanese

19 March 2020

The Hon Anthony Albanese MP

Leader of the Opposition

PO Box 5100

MARRICKVILLE  NSW  2204

Dear Mr Albanese

May I say how pleased I was to see you standing side-by-side with a Queensland coal miner in Mackay recently to launch the CFMMEU’s report on the wage implications of casual mine work.  It is good to see you supporting coal miners and the Australian coal industry.

For your information, there seems to have been a lot of banter and public political points scoring about the casual black coal mine workers, especially in the Hunter Valley.  Yet the reality is that there are many abused and crippled workers who need our help. Today, I seek your support to put things right for these workers and union members.

In the recent McKell Institute Report “Wage cutting strategies in the Mining Industry” March 2020, the author refers to abuses at BHP’s Mt Arthur Mine on page 16 but conveniently omitted to mention that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District was a party to the agreement (and others), that led to the 40% underpayment, the loss of entitlements and the abuse of so many casual black coal mine workers.

In summary, I am informed that Chandler MacLeod Group (CMG), as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW District to rip-off casual workers by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement. I am told that they underpaid the casual workers 40% knowing these workers were slipping through the ‘cracks’ in the industrial relations and workers compensation insurance systems.  To everyday Australians including me, this is immoral.

CMG then under-reported the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working at the coalface were ‘administrative staff’ in order to save a few dollars on insurance premiums.  Surely this is illegal, yet the CFMMEU did not take action.

I believe that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District, as the representative of the Hunter Valley casual black coal mine workers, let these and other mine workers down.  They were happy to take their membership fees, but it was “a fee for no service”, which sounds similar to the banks.

This union also seems to have done a ‘deal with the devil’ in agreeing with CMG to grant industrial peace and in agreeing that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District would not fight for these workers’ rights.  It concerns me that the union did not launch a class action on behalf of these disadvantaged workers when the union did so for others nearby.

I am informed that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District is directly or indirectly a part-owner of the insurer that rejected crippled workers’ claims for compensation leaving them with just over $400 a week on which to live.

Coal LSL, a government organisation which is ruled by the CFMMEU and the Minerals Councils, is no better.  They just accepted timesheets from employers without questioning them, and when employees complained Coal LSL ignored them. But now it turns out that after I questioned Coal LSL at Senate Estimates, these workers were right and Coal LSL was wrong.

In using labour-hire as a way of reducing mine production costs, the lower pay rates and the significant loss of entitlements has seen the coal industry and BHP in particular join various national retailers and others accused of ripping-off workers with wage theft.

One of the crippled miners, Mr Simon Turner, repeatedly advised the miners’ federal member for the Hunter electorate, Mr Joel Fitzgibbon, yet sadly Mr Fitzgibbon failed to take action.

Further, I am advised that your party under Mr Shorten’s leadership took the policy of equal pay for equal work to the last federal election.

Mr Albanese, these matters require co-ordinated and integrated national responses, real action by the Australian Government and the States to rectify the serious issue of employer non-compliance and to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour-hire arrangements.

I invite you to become a part of the solution and contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual coal miners everywhere.

I would be happy to meet with you to brief you in relation to the serious immoralities and irregularities and the problems the Hunter Valley casual black coal miners and their families face in your home state.

I await your response in due course.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-A.Albanese-MP-1

BHP

19 March 2020

Mr Ken MacKenzie

Chairman of the Board

BHP Group Limited

171 Collins Street

MELBOURNE  VIC  3000

Dear Mr MacKenzie

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers at your company’s Mt Arthur Mine in New South Wales and seek your support to put things right.

As an experienced coal mine manager and executive, I support the business need for casual labour from time to time, yet what has been demonstrated at Mt Arthur Mine through an exploitative enterprise agreement, work practices, rostering and the long-term use of casual workers in ‘permanent’ roles, is clearly not appropriate.

BHP, as the owner of Mt Arthur Mine, has a responsibility to ensure that both BHP and its contractors comply with the laws of Australia. BHP also has a moral obligation as a ‘good corporate citizen’ to care for workers on their mine site. However, I understand that BHP and Chandler Macleod used ‘cracks’ in the Australian industrial relations system to exploit cheap labour for the mine instead of hiring and paying permanent employees in permanent jobs.

I am informed that BHP failed to verify proof of insurance from Chandler Macleod before permitting workers on site. Surely your managers must have known that workers could be harmed and therefore, in failing to verify proper workers compensation and accident pay cover your managers have put both the workers and BHP at risk.

It seems to me that BHP may have a culture that hides site incidents, the result being that at Mt Arthur Mine BHP management did not report serious accidents that left casual miners permanently crippled and unable to work. What is worse is that these workers were not provided with proper compensation because the relevant award did not recognise casual black coal miners. BHP knew it – yet did nothing to fix it (I refer you to Dept. of Industry Resources and Energy (NSW) (Ref.: Sass-2016/00571 – “I can confirm that Mt Arthur Coal did not report the incident to the Regulator pursuant to Clause 128 Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2014”).

Regardless of how BHP determined to use labour-hire as a way of reducing mine production costs, the lower pay rates and the significant loss of entitlements have seen the coal industry join various national retailers and others accused of ripping off workers with “wage theft”.

What would your shareholders think of the Big Australian?

Everyday Australians and your shareholders expect that you and the Board would not put the company, employees or shareholders at risk due to breaches of legal and moral standards. We would all expect that BHP would behave as a good corporate citizen, yet clearly here it has let so many workers and families down, and in turn, that potentially exposes shareholders to unnecessary risk.

I am advised that the kind of abuses at your Mt Arthur Mine may be occurring at Queensland mines, and I ask you to investigate and to put things right.

These are serious matters that require real action in the form of co-ordinated, national responses from the Australian Government, the States and business to rectify the serious issue of wage theft and employer non-compliance.

If business cannot fix this Parliament may need to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour-hire arrangements. I request that you step forward and contribute to putting things right for these everyday Australians and for casual miners everywhere.

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist you.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

c.c.      Mr Mike Henry – CEO

200319-K.MacKenzie

Chandler MacLeod

19 March 2020

Mr Peter Acheson

Chief Executive Officer

Chandler MacLeod Group

Level 5, 345 George Street

SYDNEY  NSW  2001

Dear Mr Acheson

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers at BHP’s Mt Arthur Mine in New South Wales.

I was concerned to hear about Chandler MacLeod Group’s (CMG) part in the abuses these everyday Australians have endured and I seek your response and support to put things right.

I am informed that CMG, as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU (Hunter Valley Mines Division) to rip-off casual workers by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement. Apparently, CMG underpaid the casual black coal miners 40% knowing these workers were slipping through the ‘cracks’ in the industrial relations and workers insurance systems. I and many everyday Australians think that this is immoral.

I am also told that CMG underpaid and under-declared the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casual miners who were working at the coalface were ‘administrative staff’ in order to save money on insurance premiums.

I understand that CMG, as the employer, did not have appropriate insurances to cover workers they employed at Mt Arthur Mine and that CMG failed over a period of five years to pay these workers the entitlements due to black coal miners.

Further, I am informed that CMG entered into an enterprise agreement declaring that you had no casuals on site, when there were already casuals working for you on site at the mine.

Further, your company has allegedly submitted defective documentation to Coal LSL and CMG under-reported employee data for many years.  Why?  When I questioned Coal LSL in recent Senate Estimates hearings, they admitted they had found these ‘discrepancies’.

Regardless of how CMG and BHP determined to use labour-hire as a way of reducing mine production costs, the lower pay rates and the significant loss of entitlements has seen the coal industry join various national retailers and others accused of ripping-off workers with “wage theft”.  Surely it is time for you and CMG to act with honour and to take action to pay these people their entitlements and to compensate many for their physical and emotional suffering and trauma.

It is time for CMG to prove itself to be a good corporate citizen and to put things right.  I ask you and CMG to become a part of the solution.  Australia is watching.

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-P.Acheson-CEO-CMG

CFMEU Hunter Valley

19 March 2020

Mr Tony Maher

General President

CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District

PO Box 364

CESSNOCK  NSW  2325

Dear Mr Maher

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers at Mt Arthur Mine in New South Wales.

I was concerned to hear about your Division’s part in the abuses these everyday Australians have endured and seek your response and support to put things right.

I am informed that Chandler Macleod Group (CMG), as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District to rip-off casual workers by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement.  I am told that they underpaid the workers 40% knowing these workers were slipping through the ‘cracks’ in the industrial relations and workers insurance systems, which to everyday Australians is just plain immoral.

CMG both underpaid and then under-declared the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working in the pits were ‘administrative staff’, just to save money on insurance premiums.  Additionally, it is disappointing that you did not act after casual miners raised this with your union.

I believe that the CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District, as the representative of many of the Hunter Valley casual black coal mine workers, let these and other mine workers down.  You were happy to take their membership fees – “a fee for no service”, which sounds just like the banks.

In the recent McKell Institute Report “Wage cutting strategies in the Mining Industry” March 2020, the author refers to abuses at Mt Arthur Mine on page 16, but conveniently ignores that your Division of the union was a party to the agreement that led to the underpayment and abuses of so many casual black coal mine workers.

Your division of the CFMMEU seems to have done a ‘deal with the devil’ in agreeing, through its actions, with a letter from CMG that bought that company industrial peace. Specifically, the CFMMEU implicitly agreed that it would not dispute and therefore not stand up for workers’ rights.

It concerns me that the CFMMEU did not launch a class action on behalf of these disadvantaged workers when it did for others nearby.

I understand that your union is a part-owner of the insurer that rejected these workers’ claims for compensation, leaving them with just over $400 a week on which to live.

In my opinion your division’s recent public statements on this atrocious behaviour shows apparent careless ignorance of the core issues or an attempt to divert people’s attention from your division’s many failures on the issue.

It is time for you and the CFMMEU to step forward and to declare why it did nothing to protect these casual black coal mine workers, many of whom were members of the union.

This will require you to tell the truth because the issue is about much more than casualization.  It is about your Division knowingly condoning and supporting the exploitation of workers.

I request that you join with me to contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual miners everywhere.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

c.c.         Mr Grahame Kelly – General Secretary

200319-T.Maher-CFMEU

Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon – Labor MP for Hunter

19 March 2020

Mr Joel Fitzgibbon MP

Shadow Minister for Agriculture & Resources

Member for Hunter

PO Box 526

CESSNOCK  NSW  2325

Dear Mr Fitzgibbon

There seems to have been a lot of banter and public political points scoring about the casual black coal mine workers in the Hunter Valley, but right now I seek your support to put things right.

Joel, I am informed that one of these crippled workers, Simon Turner, has repeatedly tried to contact you to set the record straight about the casual black coal miners who have been refused their fair entitlements.  More recently, I read some of your comments including those in the Newcastle Herald on 17 March 2020 when you say you are for coal miners but your actions say otherwise – ignoring calls for help from injured CFMEU members.

From your public comments it seems that you have missed the point.  This is a significant wage theft issue and is about much more than casualisation of the workforce.  It is about the abuses that many casual black coal miners have endured in your electorate, and that have continued for at least five years despite being drawn to your attention.

Let’s consider the big picture.  I am informed that Chandler MacLeod Group (CMG), as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District to rip-off casual workers by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement.  I am told that they underpaid the casual workers 40% knowing these workers were slipping through the ‘cracks’ in the industrial relations and workers’ compensation insurance systems.  To everyday Australians like me this is immoral.

CMG then under-reported the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working at the coalface were ‘administrative staff’ in order to save a few dollars on insurance premiums.  Surely this is illegal, yet neither the CFMMEU nor you acted.

I believe that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District, as the representative of the Hunter Valley casual black coal mine workers, let these and other mine workers down.   They were happy to take their membership fees, but it was “a fee for no service”, which sounds similar to the banks.

In the recent McKell Institute Report “Wage cutting strategies in the Mining Industry” March 2020, the author refers to abuses at Mt Arthur Mine on page 16 but conveniently omitted that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District was a party to the agreement that led to the underpayment, loss of entitlements and abuse of so many casual black coal mine workers.

The union also seems to have done a ‘deal with the devil’ in agreeing with CMG to grant industrial peace and that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District would not protect these workers’ rights.

It concerns me that the union did not launch a class action on behalf of these disadvantaged workers when the union did so for others nearby.

I am informed that the CFMEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy District is directly or indirectly a part-owner of the insurer that rejected these workers’ claims for compensation leaving them with just over $400 a week on which to live.

Coal LSL, a government organisation which is ruled by the CFMMEU and the Minerals Councils, is no better.  They accepted timesheets from employers without questioning them, and when employees complained Coal LSL ignored them. But now it turns out that after I questioned them at Senate Estimates, these workers were right and Coal LSL was wrong.

Joel, these matters require co-ordinated national responses, real action by the Australian Government and the States to rectify the serious issue of employer non-compliance and to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour-hire arrangements.

I invite you to become a part of the solution and contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual coal miners everywhere.  The first step in developing a solution is to truthfully admit the problems listed above.

I would be happy to meet with you to brief you in relation to the real and serious immoralities and irregularities, and the problems the Hunter Valley casual black coal miners and their families face in your electorate.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-J.Fitzgibbon-MP

CFMMEU

19 March 2020

Mr Michael O’Connor

National Secretary

Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union

Level 1, 165 Bouverie Street

CARLTON  VIC  3053

Dear Mr O’Connor

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers at Mt Arthur Mine in New South Wales.

I was concerned to hear about the role of your union’s NSW Mining Division in the abuses these everyday Australians have endured and I seek your response and support to put things right.

I am informed that Chandler Macleod Group (CMG), as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District to rip-off casual workers by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement.  I am told that they underpaid the workers 40% knowing these workers were slipping through the ‘cracks’ in the industrial relations and workers insurance systems, which to everyday Australians is just plain immoral.

CMG both underpaid and then under-declared the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working in the pits were ‘administrative staff’, in order to save money on insurance premiums.  Additionally, it is disappointing that the NSW Mining Division did not act after casual miners raised this with your union.

I believe that the CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District in the Hunter Valley, as the representative of the Hunter Valley casual black coal mine workers let these and other mine workers down.  The Division was happy to take membership fees – “a fee for no service”, which sounds just like the banks.

In the recent McKell Institute Report “Wage cutting strategies in the Mining Industry” March 2020, the author refers to abuses at Mt Arthur Mine on page 16, but conveniently forgot that the CFMMEU was a party to the agreement that led to the underpayment and abuses of so many casual black coal mine workers.

Your Division of the CFMMEU seems to have done a ‘deal with the devil’ in agreeing, through its actions, with a letter from CMG that bought that company industrial peace. Specifically, the CFMMEU implicitly agreed that it would not dispute and therefore not stand up for workers’ rights.

It concerns me that the CFMMEU did not launch a class action on behalf of these disadvantaged workers when they did for others nearby.

I understand that your union, or its mining division, is a part-owner of the insurer that rejected these workers’ claims for compensation leaving them with just over $400 a week on which to live.

Coal LSL, a government organisation which is ruled by the CFMMEU and the Minerals Councils, is no better. They just accepted timesheets from employers without questioning them, and when employees complained, Coal LSL ignored them. But now, as it turns out, after I questioned Coal LSL at Senate Estimates, these workers were right and Coal LSL was wrong.

Michael, these matters require co-ordinated national responses, real action from the Australian Government, the States and stakeholders like you, to rectify the serious issue of employer non-compliance and to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour-hire arrangements.

I request you contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual miners everywhere.

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-M.OConnor-CFMMEU

Recruit Holdings

19 March 2020

Mr Masumi Minegishi

President, CEO & Chairman of the Board

Recruit Holdings Co Ltd

8-4-17 Ginza, Chuo-ku

TOKYO  JAPAN

Dear Mr Minegishi

As someone who has worked in an executive position within Australia’s coal export industry, my experience is that Japanese businesses and joint venture partners highly value behaving with integrity and honour.

I write today to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers at BHP’s Mt Arthur Mine in New South Wales, Australia.

I note that your company owns the Chandler MacLeod Group (CMG), which has been a significant contributor to the abuses that hardworking Australians have had to endure and, with respect, I am seeking your support to put things right.

I am informed that CMG as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU (Hunter Valley Mines Division) to perform wage theft from casual black coal miners by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement.  This agreement allowed your company to underpay workers 40%, knowing these workers were slipping through the cracks in the Australian industrial relations and workers compensation insurance systems.

Further, I understand that CMG under-declared the number of employees they had on site and the types of work they did, declaring that the casual miners who were working at the coalface in coal production were ‘administrative staff’ in order to save money on insurance premiums.  I am sure that you understand that this may be both fraudulent and illegal.

I am also informed that CMG declared that they had no casuals when there were already casual miners working for the company on site at the mine. I know that CMG employs a team of employment and industrial relations professionals and therefore most likely management would have done these immoral things knowing they were taking advantage of these workers.

Regardless of how CMG and BHP determined to use labour-hire as a way of reducing mine production costs, the lower pay rates and the workers’ significant loss of entitlements has seen the coal industry join various national retailers and others accused of ripping off workers with “wage theft”.

In doing so, there is a risk that not only will CMG be liable for repayment of these workers’ entitlements, they may have put at risk their AUD $300 million worth of Australian Government labour hire business, if the Mt Arthur breaches are proven to demonstrate that they are not fit to have government work.

I understand that CMG is ‘waiting’ to see what happens.  In my view, it is time for action.

It is time for Recruit Holdings and for CMG to prove themselves to be honourable and good corporate citizens and to put things right. 

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-M.Minegishi-RHC

Hon. Victor Dominello MP – NSW Minister for Customer Service

19 March 2020

The Hon Victor Dominello MP

Minister for Customer Service

GPO Box 5341

SYDNEY  NSW  2001

Dear Mr Dominello

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers in the NSW Hunter Valley coalfields.

I was concerned to hear about SIRA and iCare’s part in the abuses these everyday Australians have endured and seek your support to put things right.

For your information, I am informed that Chandler MacLeod Group (CMG) as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU (Hunter Valley Mines Division) to rip-off casual workers.  They negotiated a ‘sham’ agreement to underpay workers 40%, knowing these workers were slipping through the cracks in the industrial relations and workers insurance systems. They, like others, underpaid and under-declared the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working at the coalface in coal production were ‘administrative staff’ in order to save money reducing insurance and workers compensation premiums. Surely this is illegal?

It is understood that CMG as the employer, did not have appropriate insurances to cover workers they employed to work in the Mt Arthur Mine and over a period of five years they failed to pay them or credit them with the entitlements due to black coal miners.

I am also informed that CMG entered into an enterprise agreement declaring that they had no casuals, when there were already casuals working for them on site at the mine.  CMG, like many such companies, employed a team of employment and industrial relations professionals and would have done these immoral things knowing they were taking advantage of these workers.

Coal LSL, a government organisation and one which is ruled by the CFMMEU and the Minerals Councils, is no better.  It has been revealed in Senate Estimates hearings that they just accepted timesheets from employers without questioning them, and when employees complained, Coal LSL ignored them.  But now, as it turns out, after I questioned them at Senate Estimates, these workers were right and Coal LSL was wrong.

As you are one of the NSW Ministers responsible I draw to your attention my concerns that the NSW based workers compensation and insurance agencies like iCare, SIRA and Coal Mines Insurance do not care and have ignored legitimate claims from these black coal mine workers.  Due to ‘cracks’ in the system, these workers have been denied the rights owed to them. I would be happy to refer the individual cases to the appropriate authorities for review.  

I ask that you ensure that these abused coal workers get their due entitlements from the correct scheme for black coal miners.

These matters require co-ordinated responses, real action by the NSW and Australian Governments to rectify the serious issue of employer non-compliance and to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour hire arrangements. I request that you contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual miners in the Hunter Valley. 

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-V.Dominello-MP

Hon. Kevin Anderson MP – NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation

19 March 2020

The Hon Kevin Anderson MP

Minister for Better Regulation & Innovation

GPO Box 5341

SYDNEY  NSW  2001

Dear Mr Anderson

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers in the NSW Hunter Valley coalfields.

I was concerned to hear about SIRA and iCare’s part in the abuses these everyday Australians have endured and seek your support to put things right.

For your information, I am informed that Chandler MacLeod Group (CMG) as the labour-hire employer, may have colluded with the CFMEU (Hunter Valley Mines Division) to rip-off casual workers.  They negotiated a ‘sham’ agreement to underpay workers 40%, knowing these workers were slipping through the cracks in the industrial relations and workers insurance systems. They, like others, underpaid and under-declared the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working at the coalface in coal production were ‘administrative staff’ in order to save money reducing insurance and workers compensation premiums. Surely this is illegal?

It is understood that CMG as the employer, did not have appropriate insurances to cover workers they employed to work in the Mt Arthur Mine and over a period of five years they failed to pay them or credit them with the entitlements due to black coal miners.

I am also informed that CMG entered into an enterprise agreement declaring that they had no casuals, when there were already casuals working for them on site at the mine.  CMG, like many such companies, employed a team of employment and industrial relations professionals and would have done these immoral things knowing they were taking advantage of these workers.

Coal LSL, a government organisation and one which is ruled by the CFMMEU and the Minerals Councils, is no better.  It has been revealed in Senate Estimates hearings that they just accepted timesheets from employers without questioning them, and when employees complained, Coal LSL ignored them.  But now, as it turns out, after I questioned them at Senate Estimates, these workers were right and Coal LSL was wrong.

As you are one of the NSW Ministers responsible I draw to your attention my concerns that the NSW based workers compensation and insurance agencies like iCare, SIRA and Coal Mines Insurance do not care and have ignored legitimate claims from these black coal mine workers.  Due to ‘cracks’ in the system, these workers have been denied the rights owed to them. I would be happy to refer the individual cases to the appropriate authorities for review.  

I ask that you ensure that these abused coal workers get their due entitlements from the correct scheme for black coal miners.

These matters require co-ordinated responses, real action by the NSW and Australian Governments to rectify the serious issue of employer non-compliance and to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour hire arrangements. I request that you contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual miners in the Hunter Valley. 

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-K.Anderson-MP

Hon. Christian Porter MP – Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations

19 March 2020

The Hon Christian Porter MP

Attorney General & Minister for Industrial Relations

PO Box 6022

House of Representatives

Australian Parliament House

CANBERRA  ACT  2600

Dear Mr Porter

I write to express my concern in regard to the abuses of casual black coal mine workers at Mt Arthur Mine in New South Wales.

I am confident you will agree that BHP as the mine owner has a responsibility to ensure that BHP and its contractors comply with the laws of Australia, and BHP has a moral obligation as a ‘good corporate citizen’ to care for workers on their mine site.  BHP used Australia’s ‘broken’ IR system and engaged with a labour-hire company to buy cheap labour for the mine, instead of hiring and paying permanent and part-time employees in permanent secure jobs.

To my knowledge BHP did not verify proof of insurance from Chandler MacLeod Group (CMG) to permit them on site, yet they did so knowing workers could be harmed and had no proper workers’ compensation cover.

It seems that BHP has a culture that hides site incidents and that they did not report accidents that left casual miners permanently crippled and unable to work without proper compensation, because the rules did not recognise casual black coal miners.  BHP knew it yet did nothing to fix it. (proof – Dept. of Industry Resources and Energy (NSW) (Ref.: Sass-2016/00571) “I can confirm that Mt Arthur Coal did not report the incident to the Regulator pursuant to Clause 128 Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2014”).

I am also led to believe that CMG as the labour-hire employer may have colluded with the CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District to rip-off casual workers by negotiating a ‘sham’ agreement to underpay the workers 40%.  They knew these workers were slipping through the ‘cracks’ in the industrial relations and workers insurance systems. They, like others, underpaid and under-declared the number of people on site and the types of jobs they did, declaring that the casuals who were working in production at the coalface were ‘administrative staff’, in order to save money.

I understand that CMG, as the employer, did not have appropriate insurances to cover workers they employed in the Mt Arthur Mine and failed to pay them for a period of over five years the relevant entitlements due to black coal miners.

I am also informed that CMG may have entered into an enterprise agreement declaring that they had no casuals, when there were already casuals working for them on site at the mine.  CMG, like many such companies, employed a team of employment and industrial relations professionals and would most likely have done these immoral things knowing they were taking advantage of these workers.

For your information, CMG has approximately $300 million worth of Australian Government business, most likely paying people less than the public servants they work beside and the government has yet to review this contractor for wage theft or potential breaches of employment standards for casual workers.

The CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District in the Hunter Valley, as the representative of the Hunter Valley casual black coal mine workers, let these and other mine workers down. The CFMEU needs to step forward and declare why it did nothing to protect these casual black coal mine workers, many of whom were members of the union. The union was happy to take the miners’ membership fees  “for no service”, just like the banks.

The CFMMEU did a ‘deal with the devil’ when they agreed with a letter from CMG that bought industrial peace.  Following receipt of the CMG letter the CFMEU Northern Mining & NSW Energy District did not support these workers’ rights.

The CFMMEU are also part-owner of the insurer that chose to let these workers down, by rejecting their claims for compensation and leaving them with just over $400 a week on which to live.

Attorney General, as the minister responsible for our industrial and employment laws and regulations, I draw to your attention that the Liberal National Government and the Australian Labor Party are both to blame for putting in place an industrial relations system that let this happen.  They implemented a slow and sometimes expensive review system that causes hardworking Australians to go for years without justice.  There should be a better and quicker way.

In the recent McKell Institute Report “Wage cutting strategies in the Mining Industry” March 2020, the author refers to abuses at Mt Arthur Mine on page 16, but conveniently omitted that the CFMMEU was a party to the agreement that led to the underpayment and abuses of so many casual black coal mine workers.  An agreement that was all too quickly rubberstamped by the Fair Work Commission.

The Fair Work Commission is not without blame.  The organisation we are supposed to trust to protect our employment standards left a gaping hole in employee entitlements and insurances when they rubberstamped the CMG enterprise agreement, along with so many other similarly defective agreements. This disregard for the outcomes of their decisions has left so many broken and injured people without their lawful entitlements. 

Further, the Fair Work Ombudsman simply rubbed salt into the wounds of these broken workers when they said there is no such thing as a casual black coal miner and told any who asked for help to ‘go see a lawyer’.  This is not the Australian way.

Coal LSL, a government organisation ruled by the CFMMEU and the Minerals Councils, is no better.  They accepted timesheets from employers without questioning them and when employees complained, Coal LSL demonstrated their lack of governance and ignored them.  But now, as it turns out, after I questioned Coal LSL at Senate Estimates, these workers were right and Coal LSL was wrong.

Some abused employees are also concerned that these rogue labour-hire companies may ‘phoenix’ themselves rather than paying what they owe, leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.  I trust that you will do all in your power to prevent this.

Attorney-General, these matters require co-ordinated national responses, real action by the Australian Government and by the States to rectify the serious issue of employer non-compliance and to introduce tougher employment laws to deal with wage theft and exploitative labour-hire arrangements.

I request that you contribute to this effort to put things right for these everyday Australians and for casual miners everywhere and enable a system to get them their due entitlements as black coal mine workers.

If you require further information or wish to discuss this matter I would be happy to assist you.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Roberts

Senator for Queensland

200319-C.Porter-Attorney-General