A multinational resources company unfairly dismissed mine employees to outsource their roles, an industrial relations tribunal found.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently ruled Peabody Energy cannot retrench 22 underground workers and replace them with Mentser and Nexus contractors at the Metropolitan Coal Mine, 55km south of downtown Sydney.
A full bench ruled the 2020 lay offs were not genuine and those affected should have been redeployed. This is touted to be the first time FWC recognised redundancies are not genuine if similar work is outsourced to contractors.
“Mine operators should not be making permanent employees redundant when there is no shortage of work being performed by contractors,” Mining and Energy Union legal director Adam Walkaden said according to Common Cause.
“While the circumstances of each case are unique this win against Peabody helps establish the principle that every effort must be made to redeploy workers before sacking them – it is a win for permanent jobs.”
Former veteran Metropolitan employee Brendan Gronall welcomed the FWC’s decision after spending four years as a contractor before finally securing a permanent shirt at the mine.
“Getting a permanent job is hard so when you lose it that is even more disappointing. It is great to prove that what was done to us was done unfairly. We should have kept our jobs at the end of the day,” he said according to the publication.
The commissioner will next decide whether affected workers should be reinstated or compensated.
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