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One Nation doing more for workers than Labor

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Workers should be concerned that Labor and some union bosses have abandoned them. Casual workers are being abused and the needs of small business—Australia’s largest employer of workers—have been all but ignored by everyone except One Nation.

Transcript

In serving the people of Queensland and Australia, I note that Labor is fixated on the problems not the solution. The facts are that the government listened to One Nation’s legitimate concerns for employers and employees and it booted out the BOOT. One Nation achieved that. One Nation is doing more for Western Australian workers and employers than Labor. That is, in part, thanks to our Western Australian team, Robin Scott, an ex-Freo sparky who works hard for the people of the mining and pastoral region in WA, and Colin Tincknell, the One Nation WA state leader who proudly represents the South West region. Workers should be concerned that Labor and some union bosses have abandoned them. Casual workers are being abused and the needs of small business—Australia’s largest employer of workers—have been all but ignored by everyone except One Nation.

I have stood up to put a stop to these abuses for casual workers that the unions, the Labor Party and politicians like Joel Fitzgibbon knowingly ignored for years. Recently, the CFMEU mining division agreed with me that their union has ignored casuals for many years. I applaud that person in the CFMEU for having the courage to do that, and lawyers for the ETU and CFMEU confirmed that, in their opinion—and I agree with them—the IR system needs to be free from lawyers. For Labor to say that it’s going to be easier for employers to cut wages and conditions is not enough. Labor need to step up and show everyday Australians what Australia’s IR problems are and what they would do better. Labor, like Joel Fitzgibbon, are all talk and no action.

One Nation wants genuine industrial relations reform for the benefit of employees and employers, especially for small business and their employees, and the best way to do that is to listen and contribute to a better system. We have been listening widely and hearing the concerns from industry, union bosses, employer and employee groups, welfare groups, casual and injured workers, and small business. I care and I will fight to protect workers’ legal and moral entitlements, just as I am doing in Queensland and I am doing in the Hunter Valley, even though it is not in my state. One Nation stands for the workers that Labor and Joel Fitzgibbon continue to ignore.

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JobMaker puts youth on the right path

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Marcus Paul from 2SM and I discussed our support for JobMaker, Joel Fitzgibbon on losing support of blue collar workers and renewables destroying our productive capacity.

Transcript

[Marcus Paul]

Ah look, interestingly I noticed that One Nation have kinda changed course. If we’ve got time, we can put it up now. They’ve changed course a little in relation to JobMaker and JobKeeper and issues in the Senate allowing the passage of the change of legislation. We’ll talk to Malcolm about that in just a couple of moments and also I mean, JobMaker itself, the legislation’s very important. It involves subsidies for employers to hire two groups of unemployed people, et cetera. I mean they supported two of the labor Green’s 11 amendments and so an extension is now happening. What do you make of it? One Nation itself, how it operates, I mean they’ve copped a little bit, certainly in Queensland of late. So anyway, let’s speak to Malcolm now, we’re good to go.

And now on Marcus Paul in the Morning, Senator Malcolm Roberts.

There he is, hello Malcolm.

[Malcolm Roberts]

G’day Marcus, how are you?

[Marcus Paul]

I’m well, thank you very well. So JobMaker, tell me what’s happening here.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Well, as you pointed out that Pauline and I both opposed this when we first spoke about it on Tuesday but you know we have the courage and the integrity to change our mind when we get new data and there are two pieces of data that are really important. 10.4% and 4% and Pauline had a talk with the treasurer yesterday then consulted with me and we changed their mind on JobMaker because the people under 35 years of age have an unemployment rate of 10.4% but people over 35 years have only, well only 4%. And that means we need to get young people back to work, they’ve been hit harder by the COVID restrictions, we need to get them back to work, prevent the life of drugs and crime, get them on the right path quickly. So that’s why we changed their mind.

[Marcus Paul]

Okay, I mean look, obviously with younger people, they’re generally involved in the industry’s hardest hit by the pandemic, whether it’s hospitality, in retail and that’s, yeah it makes perfect sense to me. That’d be why the unemployment rates for those under 35 is so much higher than those over.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes and you know the impact of COVID restrictions on the unemployed in Australia double the unemployment. In other words, have increased unemployment by a hundred percent. But the unemployment of people under 35 went up by 150%. So whichever way you look at it, the young need a lot of help and there’s protections already with JobSeeker and JobKeeper that are already available. But we have to have to get hold of the young and we have the courage and the integrity to change our mind, we’re not worried what people say because it was the right thing to do so we did it.

[Marcus Paul]

Well that’s right and that’s the beauty of having One Nation and others there. I mean, I don’t think you’ll find any disrespect because it’s obvious you’re a minor party but you do make a lot of difference. That’s why it’s important to get key legislation across the line to have people like you and Pauline who are able to listen, analyse the data and then make decisions accordingly.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yes and we don’t get into fights like we saw the labor Party and The Greens yesterday trying to pit young people against old people. That kind of division is just pure politic and it’s rubbish, it hurts our country. We’ve gotta work for the benefit of the country, work in the national interest.

[Marcus Paul]

All right. Now I spoke to Fitzy yesterday on the programme and I’ve been very strong in my editorial stance on this this morning. I’ll just tell you my stance and then you and I can have a blue about it, okay? Look, what I’m saying is I believe that labor is imploding a little at a federal level. For labor to have any chance if you like, at the next federal election, the party needs to be more pragmatic about its climate change targets and policies, that’s not to say that climate change isn’t important but it needs to be tempered with the realisation that the party can’t leave blue collar workers behind. Now whether Albo and other senior labor members accept it not, I mean they should, they need to look at what happened with the last federal election. Blue collar workers, those in mining, manufacturing and other sectors relying on strong power supply, believe the party has forgotten them. And also Joel Fitzgibbon obviously he’s stuck between a piece of coal and a hard place up there in the Hunter. Well, I mean he believes that mine workers and blue collared workers in his constituency have been forgotten about by labor. What do you make of it all?

[Malcolm Roberts]

What did you, you said we were gonna have a blue about this. I agree with you, I agree–

[Marcus Paul]

That’s to come All right, we’ll do it the next time. We’ll fight over the US election, okay?

[Malcolm Roberts]

labor has lost its way and that’s absolutely correct because they’ve abandoned the blue collar workers. And Joel is not the only one who’s taken this path in labor. We know there are a number of senators, I’ve spoken with them. They think that the, what the labor Party is doing is lunacy not just abandoning miners, but abandoning blue collar workers across all sectors. And labor Party, but you know what really Marcus? labor Party’s fault is just not looking at the data. It’s exactly the same with the Liberal, Nationals and Greens. They’re not looking at the data. The data says you do not need to do anything about carbon dioxide from human activity. You do not need to stop burning coal, oil, natural gas, it’s all rubbish. And Joel Fitzgibbon he’s on the right path to try and drag his party back but it looks like a path that’s gonna be very difficult for Joel because his party is just resolved to abandoning people, abandoning blue collar workers. It’s just insane.

[Marcus Paul]

Well, I mean, obviously Albo’s a part of the extreme left if you like of the labor Party, Joel is the head of the right faction and never the twain shall meet which isn’t good when you need to have a united front hitting into a federal election and the will to- See the problem is that’s why I believe that labor need to be a little bit more pragmatic about this, be realistic. You can’t make any changes from the wilderness of opposition and that’s where they’ll find themselves in the next federal election unless they alter their stance on it. Unless they accept that, look setting targets in 2050 is, well it’s just unrealistic. I mean, look what’s happened with, We’re supposed to be going into a federal budget surplus and then comes COVID-19. You can’t predict bush fires, you can’t predict droughts, you can’t predict floods. You can try and do everything you can to mitigate them in some respects but at the end of the day, if we stop burning coal, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any more bush fires, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any further droughts and other issues. The climate does change.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yeah, you’ve nailed it, you’ve absolutely nailed it. And the thing is, there’s one other point that I would add to what you’re saying. 170 years of human history has shown us, the last 170 years from 1850 onwards, the industrial revolution, one clear trend. Ever decreasing prices in real terms after inflation of energy. And when you have that, you have a dramatic increase in productivity. When you have that, you have dramatic increase in wealth and general community prosperity. And that is what’s driven human progress. Think of how far we have come in the last 170 years. That’s an eye blink in the history of this planet an eye blink in the history of human civilization. And yet we have come so far and now labor Party and the Liberal Party and the National Party and the Greens want to destroy that and it’s just insane. In the last 20 years, we’ve reversed human progress and increased the price of electricity through stupid regulations that are not necessary.

[Marcus Paul]

All right, maybe this is where we start our blue but that does not mean Malcolm that we can’t look at newer, greener technologies in the future to include in the mix. Now I’m one of those, I’m a pragmatist, I understand we need baseload power and the only way to get that and the only way to keep the lights on is to continue on the path we’re at. But down the track, we do need to have private investments, let them take the risk in more wind field, more wind farms and solar farms and other renewable sources of energy and include them in the mix. Because I think we do need to at least acknowledge that there are some things we can do to look after our environment.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Marcus after we’re gonna have a blue, I happen to agree with you. Again on this one. You still can’t get me into a fight because I agree with you mate. But you know there’s just something really simple to remember. The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, it ran out, the stone age ended because we got better metals and materials. And each of the ages has not ended because we ran out of something. The Copper Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Coal Age will end because we’ve come up with a better form of electricity generation and energy generation and that will probably be some form of nuclear. But fundamentally, the second point I’d make is that fundamentally with physics, you cannot get sufficient energy density out of wind and solar, absolutely impossible. That’s why they will always take more resources to make a wind turbine, more resources to make a solar panel than you will ever get out of the damn thing. And so that’s why they’re very expensive and there’s no end to that, they will always be expensive. But there will be other things developed and I agree with you, let the private sector do that, let them take the risk.

[Marcus Paul]

All right. Speaking of the Stone Age, when is the caveman going to vacate the White House? The time’s up, I mean–

[Malcolm Roberts]

Now we’re getting a fight.

[Marcus Paul]

You can do it, you can recount as many states as you like but Donald needs to accept that he’s on the outer and off he should trot.

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, not at all. The presidency, the presidential elections are not declared by the media, not declared by one of the candidates, not declared by the political parties, not declared by the commentary. The presidential election is declared by each state legislature. Not even a governor in the state, but each state legislature and that’s not even close to being declared. And what we’ve seen now is a hell of a mess in America with the Democrats, all of the, I think almost all of the changes that they’ve found that need to be made in vote counting has gone away from the democrats. And that’s because there’s a lot of corruption involved and Trump is absolutely right. And he’s not gonna walk away from this. I think he will bow gracefully once the count is finished but we’ve got–

[Marcus Paul]

Hang on, that’s almost sounding a little like conceding a bit. I know we know Donald won’t concede are you conceding that he may concede eventually.

[Malcolm Roberts]

No, no, not at all.

[Marcus Paul]

But I think he might be Malcolm, I think he might be. You just said–

[Malcolm Roberts]

I honestly think Trump’s got it. I think Trump will win this but we won’t know and what I’m then saying is that, that Trump if he does lose, he will vacate.

[Marcus Paul]

He’ll have no choice. The Secret Service will wander in there, lift him up and throw him out by his big boy pants which he fails to wear every day, get out.

[Malcolm Roberts]

No no, I think Trump is actually, he’s got America at heart and he will do what’s right for the country and he’s got to pursue these illegal votes from the democrats. There’s a lot of fraud going on, he’s absolutely correct and we’ve known that for years in the Democrat Party in America. This is the first time a Republican has stood up and I think Trump anticipated this, he planned this before months.

[Marcus Paul]

Here we go. All right mate. Malcolm, it’s always great talking to you. Look, I’ve gotta go, next week let’s concentrate on the bail in situation and the legislation that certainly does need to be changed. We don’t want banks taking our money just to keep themselves afloat. We’ll talk about that next week mate, okay?

[Malcolm Roberts]

All right mate, thank you very much.

[Marcus Paul]

Have a wonderful day. There he is, Malcolm Roberts, see he’s become a bit of a sparring partner and I love it.

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Senator Roberts calls for Fitzgibbon to resign from Parliament

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Member for the seat of Hunter, Mr Joel Fitzgibbon MP, ought to resign and offer the voters a real choice for representation at a by-election.

Senator Roberts said, “Mr Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the ALP cabinet over climate policy is damming confirmation that Labor no longer represents blue-collar workers.

“He cannot be effective sitting on the back-bench sulking over how Labor have lost their way. Hunter Valley constituents deserve better and he needs to resign.”

In the 2019 election, with a massive 14% swing against Labor, the seat of Hunter became a truly marginal seat for the first time in its 109-year history.

“Mr Fitzgibbon only started caring about blue-collar workers in his electorate when they deserted him at the last election in favour of One Nation’s Stuart Bonds.

“Labor can no longer hide from the fact that traditional working-class voters no longer support their climate and energy policies,” Senator Roberts added.

Mr Stuart Bonds, One Nation candidate in Hunter stated, “It’s over Joel. If you cannot fight for your constituents as the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources from the front bench, then you will never do it from the back bench.” Mr Bonds with nearly 22% of the vote in the 2019 election said, “The Hunter deserves a strong voice and I intend to be that voice …. so game on!”

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Miners are being left behind by those who are meant to protect them

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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.

REVEALED: Shocking abuse of workers in mining industry

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.

CHECKLIST: Are you a miner? Find out if you’re getting ripped off

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.

CHECKLIST: Are you a miner? Find out if you’re getting ripped off

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REVEALED: Shocking abuse of workers in mining industry

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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:

CHECKLIST: Are you a miner? Find out if you’re getting ripped off

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.

/by

Further information on One Nation’s Enterprise Agreement Vote

Three examples of Labor MP’s gutting jobs and workers and an expression of appreciation for three Labor MP’s who approach us face-to-face and honestly deal with issues.
The Labor party as a whole no longer protects workers.

Today’s Labor party savages workers and families. Labor has lost relevance and instead of caring about workers and being honest many Labor MPs tell lies and omit facts.

What works with us and what we like is for MP’s to approach us openly, bring data and share it freely to back up their request, and above all, to be honest.

Transcript

Following last week’s parliamentary sessions in Canberra here’s a longer video with more facts on policies hurting workers and a compliment to one New South Wales senator who approached us openly and respectfully on an issue.

Let’s set the record straight on a recent change to federal regulations, to allow employers and employees to quickly amend an existing Enterprise Agreement to deal with the COVID-19 crisis and keep their business going and employing people.

For businesses that are struggling to survive due to COVID-19, this allows employers to ask employees to vote on changes to an existing EA more quickly, in as short as 24 hours, rather than the normal 7 days. Unprecedented times call for flexibility for employers and employees.

We agree that some businesses need this and workers in those businesses understand. It was One Nation though that negotiated with the government to add the 12-month sunset clause, so that if employees agree to amend their EA for COVID, all pay and conditions would return after 12 months.

That’s fair. Typically, Labour then spread the lie that these temporary changes with a shorter voting period would be permanent, when they’re not. Remember, the regulation does not force you to agree. If you lack adequate time to vote on it, you can vote no.

So, to Labor’s Tony Burke and Joel Fitzgibbon, you have been caught lying to the workers you claim to represent. Labour seems to hate that it was One Nation who negotiated with the government to improve the bill, and made amendments to protect workers and workers’ rights.

And I put on notice any employer that thinks of using COVID-19 to screw workers by taking advantage of new regulations when COVID-19 restrictions have not affected them. In places like mines with 24 hour shift-work, employers would be crazy to give only one day to vote because that would force some workers to come in to vote on their day off or after a long shift on night work.

And workers who are annoyed would likely vote against the amended EA anyway. Anyway, as far as we know from listening to miners, COVID-19 is not affecting most mines’ operations. Remember, the new regulation does not apply to voting on a new EA, only to changes to an existing EA.

The regulation that is part of the COVID-19 response package only improves the flexibility for those businesses where employers and employees need a quick change to deal with COVID. We all know that life is about making choices, especially in politics where we face so many different people’s competing needs. Quite often, we have to choose between two difficult choices.

On one hand the viability of employers to protect jobs, and on the other hand protecting workers and worker’s rights. To make sure workers are protected while giving employees and employers greater flexibility to negotiate changes quickly to keep people in work, One Nation added the 12 month sunset clause.

The government agreed and will change the regulation. That means that after 12 months an EA with COVID changes returns back to the original conditions. This was done by One Nation to protect workers from employers in case those employers later tried to make COVID changes continue forever.

We’re in unprecedented times, yet we will not let this pandemic be used as an excuse to drag this out any longer than it should. One Nation identifies real issues and protects workers’ rights. Let’s get the background facts on what happened.

Labour has been sidelined with two things, the focus on the government during COVID and a lame federal leader in Anthony Albanese after a distrusted leader in Bill Shorten. A few weeks ago a journalist asked me for comment on the possibility of voting on Labor’s disallowance of the regulation.

What disallowance? That was news to us. When there is a real issue though, Labour contacts us to get our support. Union delegates contact us. Yet we heard nothing from unions or Labour. It was not a serious issue and Labour did not make an argument for it.

Later, when we saw the disallowance motion on the senate agenda we contacted Labour and we contacted union delegates. Union delegates said they had no issue. We reviewed the regulation and realised that some employees and employers would want to negotiate changes quickly to keep people in work under COVID isolation rules, others would make no changes and others still would make minor changes slowly to remain viable.

The key though, is that we saw a loophole that needed to be closed. So we approached the government and explained it. The government agreed with us and is amending the regulation to protect workers’ rights. That change that One Nation senators proposed was to put a sunset clause on any changes to protect workers after the COVID crisis ends. To protect workers.

Now, desperate Labour MPs, like Tony Burke, Joel Fitzgibbon, Katy Gallagher, falsely and needlessly mislead and worry honest workers in an attempt for political gain. We though in One Nation got to the core issue and fixed it to protect workers’ rights.

By the way, let me remind you that Tony Burke, when he was Labor’s Environment Minister, pushed anti-coal measures that are still hurting our coal industry and therefore hurting coal miners. And raising electricity prices that are still hurting all workers and all family householders, and exporting manufacturing and processing jobs to China.

So let me remind everyone, that Tony Burke enacted drastic UN regulations that gutted our fishing industry and gave power over our country to faceless unelected UN bureaucrats. Now, he dares misleads people about the disallowance motion and forgets to tell people that One Nation negotiated changes in the regulations to ensure workers rights are protected.

As for Joel Fitzgibbon, after he was nearly tipped out as the rep for Hunter, last federal election, he started to talk more about coal. Yet his words remain hollow, because his Labour party bosses continue anti-coal policies.

Where the old and real Labour party protected miners and workers, today’s Labour party protects the UN and pushes UN policies. These days Labour does not care about Australian workers. Labour hurts Australian workers.

Labour tells lies to Australian workers and Labour hurts our democracy. Another example of Labour mismanagement of workers is immigration policies, immigration numbers. After One Nation alone for years called to cut immigration numbers, recently Labour senator Kristina Keneally wrote an article calling for immigration to not be the same after COVID as before.

Yet she and others had been viciously and falsely labelling our demands for immigration cuts as racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic. The reality is that we could see that huge immigration numbers suppress wages, raise house prices, put pressure on infrastructure like roads, hospitals, schools and drive casualization of the workforce.

So last week in the senate I moved a matter of public importance motion that became a test of her commitment to her new words. You know what? She hid the whole day until after my motion had been debated.

Labour MPs refused to back her call for lower immigration numbers. Remember, the largest intake of temporary visa workers in any year occurred when Bill Shorten was minister for workplace relations under the Gillard Green’s government and authorised them.

Labour hurts Australian workers. Labour does not care about Australian workers. Labour tells lies. I take this opportunity though to express appreciation to Senator Tony Sheldon from New South Wales who approached us about getting Dnata employees in airline catering to be put on the government’s JobKeeper programme despite the government saying that welfare would not go to 100% foreign owned companies.

Dnata is 100% owned by a Middle Eastern country. We asked Senator Sheldon for data and gave us some. We asked the government for data and got plenty.

We then realised that these days domestic flights usually provide minimal food such as packaged peanuts, no big meals International flights though cater for solid meals yet most of those flights won’t start again until early next year, maybe mid next year and JobKeeper ends in late September this year. Plus, JobKeeper payments are taxed.

JobSeeker though is open to Australian workers, are not taxed and often come with additional payments such as family allowance and rental assistance. We checked the data and JobSeeker payments are comparable with JobKeeper after tax is removed from JobKeeper.

More importantly, JobSeeker continues beyond September and into next year so Dnata workers will be better protected on JobSeeker. We made a decision on the facts we gathered and in our view it is better to put the situation openly to Dnata people, many of whom will not have a job after September and need to sign up for JobSeeker as soon as possible.

Now we appreciate Tony Sheldon’s care and his open approach to us to consider his motion, we trust Tony because he’s honest. He’s a former TWU union delegate, like Senators Glenn Sterle and Alex Gallacher, who we find are excellent to deal with in the senate and are knowledgeable and caring.

Like Pauline and me, One Nation values honesty.

/by

Enterprise Agreement Vote Explained

Last week in the Senate Pauline and I negotiated with the Government to change new COVID regulations to protect workers rights .Yet when some MPs feel like they are losing relevance, they panic and spread misinformation to score cheap political points. These MP’s show they do not care about workers and are not honest. See for yourself. One Nation will always protect workers and workers’ rights

Transcript

Let’s set the record straight on a recent change to federal regulations to allow employers and employees to quickly amend an existing Enterprise Agreement to deal with the COVID-19 crisis and keep their business going and employing people. For businesses that are struggling to survive due to COVID-19, this allows employers to ask employees to vote on changes to an existing EA more quickly, in as short as 24 hours, rather than the normal seven days.

Unprecedented times call for flexibility for employers and employees. Now, we agree that some businesses need this and workers in those businesses understand. It was One Nation, though, that negotiated with the government to add the 12-month sunset clause, so that if employees agreed to amend their EA for COVID, all pay and conditions would return after 12 months. That’s fair.

Typically, Labor then spread the lie that these temporary changes with a shorter voting period would be permanent, when they’re not. Remember, the regulation does not force you to agree. If you lack adequate time to vote on it, you can vote no. So, to Labor’s Tony Burke and Joel Fitzgibbon, you have been caught lying to the workers you claim to represent.

Labor seems to hate that it was One Nation who negotiated with the government to improve the bill and made amendments to protect workers and workers’ rights. And I put on notice any employer that thinks of using COVID-19 to screw workers by taking advantage of new regulations when COVID-19 restrictions have not affected them.

In places like mines with 24-hour shift work, employers would be crazy to give only one day to vote because that would force some workers to come in to vote on their day off or after a long shift or night work. And workers who are annoyed would likely vote against the amended EA anyway. Anyway, as far as we know from listening to miners, COVID-19 is not affecting most mines’ operations.

Remember, the new regulation does not apply to voting on a new EA, only to changes to an existing EA. The regulation that is part of the COVID-19 response package only improves the flexibility for those businesses where employers and employees need a quick change to deal with COVID. We all know that life is about making choices, especially in politics where we face so many different people’s competing needs.

Quite often we have to choose between two difficult choices. On the one hand, the viability of employers to protect jobs, and on the other hand, protecting workers and workers’ rights. To make sure workers are protected, while giving employees and employers greater flexibility to negotiate changes quickly to keep people in work, One Nation added the 12-month sunset clause.

The government agreed and will change the regulation. That means that after 12 months, an EA with COVID changes returns back to the original conditions. This was done by One Nation to protect workers from employers, in case those employers later tried to make COVID changes continue forever. We are in unprecedented times, yet we will not let this pandemic be used as an excuse to drag this out any longer than it should.

One Nation identifies real issues and protects workers’ rights.

/by

Letters: Abuse of Casual Coal Miners

,

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

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