MEU has slammed the decision by Peabody and is urging the government to step in. Photo: MEU.
Helensburgh miners will be stuck for at least another week without pay after US coal giant Peabody extended the lockout which started in mid-June.
Metropolitan Mine employees expected to return to work on 26 June after being locked out for 10 days in response to industrial action taken earlier in the month.
But the evening before they were due to go back, miners were told the lockout would continue until 6 July.
A Peabody spokesperson said the company had engaged in more than 10 meetings with the workforce, conciliation meetings with the Fair Work Commission and bargained in good faith for over seven months.
“The company absorbed the union’s first round of strike action by not responding with company counter action,” the spokesperson said.
“The company only responded after the union engaged in further, escalated industrial action and the lockout is the same duration as the union’s strike action.”
The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) is now calling on the Federal Government to take action and amend legislation to prevent “overtly disproportionate lockouts”.
MEU South Western District President Bob Timbs said the response revealed “a totally uneven playing field”.
“More and more we’re seeing well-resourced multinational employers respond to industrial action by locking out workers, often for orders of magnitude longer than the initial worker’s disruption,” he said.
“Union members are required to hold a vote, reach a consensus on industrial action and notify employers in advance; employers are able to unilaterally lock out workers in response for as long as they want, denying the workers and their families an income.
“This is an important unfinished reform that we urge the Government to address without delay, to fulfill their commitment to fair and genuine workplace bargaining.”
Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes said enterprise bargaining played a “critical role” and worked best when all parties had a “genuine willingness to negotiate and resolve differences constructively”.
“The government is concerned when any bargaining party engages in disproportionate industrial action during a bargaining dispute and I encourage all parties to negotiate in good faith and to utilise the expertise of the Fair Work Commission to help reach agreement,” Ms Byrnes said.
“Employer lockouts should only be used as a last resort in response to equivalent employee industrial action.”
Despite the latest escalation, miners said they won’t back down in negotiating for what they deserved.
“Peabody’s standover tactics are designed to intimidate us into giving up our bargaining rights, but we aren’t ready to roll over,” miner and MEU delegate Matt Potter said.
“We’ve been through several years of stagnant wage growth and cost of living pressures, while continually setting production records at the mine.
“Peabody are posting hundreds of millions in profit for their shareholders, meanwhile we are the lowest paid coal miners in the southern coalfields. We are simply asking for the retention of our longstanding job security clause, and a pay rise to bring us in line with the other mines in the area.”
A Peabody spokesperson said it “remains committed to lifting the lockout and reaching agreement with our workforce if the union decides to end its action”.
