Unvaxxed BHP miners agree to get the Covid-19 jab

Over half of the almost 80 unvaccinated BHP miners stood down without pay have agreed to get the jab but more than 30 remain defiant.

More than half of the almost 80 unvaccinated miners stood down without pay at BHP’s coalmine at Mt Arthur in NSW have agreed to abide by the company’s mandatory jab policy.

The workers at the Hunter Valley open-cut coalmine were stood down two weeks ago as they had not provided evidence of their Covid vaccination status to the company.

BHP said on Wednesday the number of stood-down workers who had not produced evidence of vaccination status had fallen to “fewer than 35 employees”.

Mt Arthur employs about 724 workers who are covered by the Mt Arthur Coal enterprise agreement, and 256 workers not covered by the agreement.

Another 1000 workers employed or engaged by other entities also work at the mine.

BHP has pledged not to implement any further disciplinary action, including termination, against the unvaccinated workers until a Fair Work full bench rules on a challenge by the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union to the mandatory jab policy.

The full bench headed by president Iain Ross held the first of two days of hearings on Wednesday to consider the CFMEU application, with the ACTU and national employers intervening in the case, given its potential ­significance.

In submissions, the unions said BHP’s new site access requirement was unlawful as its introduction was announced without the company complying with the consultation requirements of the Work, Health and Safety Act.

The Australian Industry Group argued that even if BHP did not meet its WHS consultation requirements, its direction should not be rendered unlawful.

While the company could be exposed to a sanction for contravening the WHS Act, the Ai Group said it would not invalidate a direction to address a work health and safety risk.

The CFMEU said a reasonable direction for mandatory vaccination should have regard to the circumstances at Mt Arthur but the policy had been applied at the company’s workplaces across Australia.

The union said neither the commonwealth government nor the NSW government had seen fit through legislation, regulation or any public health order to require mandatory vaccination as a condition of employment at workplaces like the Mt Arthur mine. It said no other coalmines in NSW had mandatory vaccination policies.

In its submission, BHP said it had the statutory responsibilities of a mine operator under the Mine Safety Act, employing a workforce that primarily lived in surrounding communities. “As a consequence, its workforce has regular daily contact with families and other members of surrounding communities, and (BHP) cannot prevent workers from contracting Covid-19 outside work and bringing it with them when they are next on site.”

Even with higher community rates of vaccination, Covid remained a significant workplace hazard, BHP said.