Up to 80 workers at New South Wales’ biggest coal mine have been ordered by BHP to acknowledge moves to interstate mines or leave their positions.
A worker who is confronting the final offer said he felt “left in the street” by the organization.
BHP keeps on looking for a purchaser for its Mt Arthur thermal coal mine close to Muswellbrook, subsequent to slicing its worth from $2 billion to negative $200 million in recent years.
The mine has a total workforce of in excess of 2,000 individuals, however BHP utilizes its entirely owned labour-hire subsidiary Operations Services (OS) to utilize 80 specialists.
As a component of the sale process, OS at Mt Arthur will be ended up from November 1.
While some of the affected miners have been at Mt Arthur as permanent representatives of OS for over two years, they are legally employed within an “east coast hub” — not Mt Arthur.
Consequently, BHP can require the representatives to work at numerous sites, without a redundancy entitlement.
Employees have been advised they can migrate to mines in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, with financial assistance from BHP.
“If you do not wish to continue employment with OS at another deployment or elsewhere with BHP, you will be required to resign,” a letter to employees said.
An affected worker, who mentioned to stay anonymous in light of the fact that he was not approved to speak to the media, has settled in the Hunter Valley with his wife and children.
“The ones that can’t take the position will be left in the street, and that to me is not supporting the people that have worked for them for the past two to three years,” the worker told the ABC.
“It leaves us thinking that we’ve been chucked in the gutter.”
The laborer said confirmations from organizations and politicians that coal jobs were protected were “absolutely ridiculous”.
His requests to move from OS to BHP were rejected, he said.
“I totally get that OS is winding up in November, it’s part of mining — I get that,” he said.
“What I don’t get is the way they’ve come about it.”
A different labour-hire firm, Chandler McLeod, is at present recruiting laborers for Mt Arthur yet it is muddled the number of positions are accessible.
The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has taken BHP to the Fair Work Commission over the matter, however given the representatives are not covered by an enterprise agreement there is no right to assertion.
CFMEU district VP Jeff Drayton said BHP’s treatment of the laborers was “appalling”.
“It’s incomprehensible that at a coal mine the size of Mt Arthur, BHP can’t simply move them on to the site enterprise agreement and continue their employment,” he said.
“Here’s BHP trying to profess to the community all the time about how community minded [they] are.”
BHP declined the ABC’s requests for an interview, however a representative said “Operations Services will conclude the provision of production services at Mt Arthur Coal later this year and team members will move to other sites”.
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