Peabody coal mine workers locked out in wages dispute
Workers from an underground New South Wales coal mine are facing a lockout after taking limited industrial action over wage negotiations.
About 160 permanent employees were locked out without pay from Wednesday this week to Thursday next week at the Metropolitan Mine in Helensburgh.
The Mining and Energy Union said it would lodge a claim for a 15 per cent wage increase over three years, a one-off market rate increase of $1.50 per hour, plus a $4 increase to crib payments.
The president of the union's NSW South West District, Mark Jenkins, said mine owner Peabody was punishing workers for exercising their industrial rights as they sought to negotiate a new enterprise agreement.
"The workers enacted their industrial right and took some limited one-hour stoppages across their shifts," he said.
Mr Jenkins said there was no warning.
"We went into a bargaining meeting with the company on the day of the lockout and found out probably about an hour and 45 minutes after the bargaining meeting that the lockout was taking place," Mr Jenkins said.
A Peabody spokesperson said Metropolitan Mine acknowledged that employees had engaged in industrial action, and the union had notified the company of further industrial action to come.
"In response, Peabody implemented employer response action, with a lockout of employees commencing night shift Wednesday, 18 June and continuing until day shift Thursday, 26 June," the spokesperson said.
The action follows a Federal Court decision last year ruling that 22 Peabody Energy crew members unjustly lost their jobs before being replaced by external contractors at the same mine in June 2020.
The court found that replacing full-time employees with labour hire did not constitute "genuine redundancies".
The lockout comes at a time when the nearby Tahmoor mine is also under pressure, but for a different reason, as the mine hasn't mined coal since February due to unpaid bills.
About 560 mineworkers are still being paid but have been stripped of their regular bonuses.
They are increasingly anxious about whether the mine, owned by British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, and linked to the Whyalla steelworks, will reopen.
Independent Member for Wollondilly Judy Hannan said this week the state government was monitoring and negotiating with the mine's owner GFG Alliance.
The union has called for the state government to intervene.
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