The High Court of Australia has confirmed that the sacking of twenty-two underground miners from Peabody’s Helensburgh mine were not genuine redundancies in a landmark case run by the Mining and Energy Union, affirming the principle of job security in the coal mining industry and beyond.
The High Court upheld the findings of the industrial tribunal, the Fair Work Commission, that the dismissed workers could have been reasonably redeployed to similar roles undertaken by contractors Menster and Nexus, which meant the dismissals were therefore not genuine redundancies.
The twenty-two miners were sacked by Peabody in 2020, before the Fair Work Commission found the redundancies were not genuine in 2022. Today’s High Court decision marks Peabody’s third unsuccessful attempt to overturn that ruling.
Mining and Energy Union General Secretary Grahame Kelly said that today’s decision is an important precedent against corporate avoidance of workplace protections.
“For over five years, these workers have been fighting to protect the very principle of job security in the mining industry.
“Today’s decision reaffirms that they should never have been sacked, and that Peabody’s claim that they had been made redundant was never genuine.
“Today, the High Court has been clear: permanent workers cannot be removed in favour of contractors through dodgy corporate restructuring. This is especially vital in the mining industry where employers have form exploiting labour hire to erode pay, rights, conditions and job security.”
The full judgement can be accessed here.
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