BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s Operations Services arm has been ordered to compensate 85 workers between $800 and $2400 each for requiring them to work on Christmas and Boxing Day 2019 at the Daunia coal mine.
In addition to that $83,700 payout, the employer was penalised $15,000 for Fair Work Act contraventions – payable to the Mining and Energy Union (MEU).
Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah outlined the reason behind the compensation to the Operations Services workers as being for “the loss of the opportunity to refuse to work on those days by raising reasonable grounds for refusal.”
But he said also that the OS standard contract provided that employees may be required to work on public holidays, and he found that their annual salary fully compensated them financially for working on dates including Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
“Accordingly, the union has not demonstrated that the employees suffered any economic loss as a result of the contraventions,” he said.
MEU Queensland president Mitch Hughes said the financial compensation for workers was an important recognition of their poor treatment by BHP’s Operations Services arm.
“These workers were directed to work public holidays with no consultation or agreement. Their names were drawn out of a hat,” he said.
“Some had to find babysitters for children on Christmas Day or missed parents’ and relatives’ last Christmas celebrations.
“While these amounts are small change to BHP, the bigger principle here is that Australian workers can raise reasonable grounds to refuse to work on public holidays.
“This judgment is a message to all employers in the coal industry and beyond that they must comply with Australian workplace law and community expectations.
“They can request workers to work public holidays – they can’t compel or command them to and workers can refuse on reasonable grounds.”
A BHP spokesman said mining operations ran around the clock, every day of the year, to provide the materials the world needed – and this included on public holidays.
“We will continue to comply with the court’s decision relating to public holiday rosters,” he said.