CFMEU drops $16m claim for casual mine worker entitlements

The class action had aimed to claw back millions in entitlements for casual mine workers.

The CFMEU has dropped a $16m lawsuit against labour hire company WorkPac over entitlements for casual workers. Picture: David Swift

The mining union has dropped a $16m compensation class action against labour hire company WorkPac after legal advice the lawsuit would not prevail.

The landmark case sought to recover millions in entitlements for about 900 current and former mine workers including many in the Central Queensland region, who claim they had been misclassified as casual workers.

However CFMEU discontinued the Renyard v WorkPac class action following legal advice it could not succeed in the wake of a recent judgment also involving WorkPac where the High Court overturned a case in the labour hire company’s favour.

The union also blamed retrospective laws impacting casual workers, legislated in March, which introduced a new definition of casual based on the terms in the contract not the subsequent work arrangements.

Union general president Tony Maher said casual coal miners had hoped the class action would “deliver justice, compensation and an end to the toxic permanent casual employment model in the coal industry”.

“We are extremely disappointed to discontinue this landmark class action on behalf of casual miners performing jobs that were permanent in nature, but without the security and entitlements of permanency,” he said.

“Casualisation is out of control in the coal industry and everyone knows it is simply a way for the big mining companies to cut costs and shift risk on to workers.

“Casual miners are rightfully angry that as soon as we had some legal wins exposing and clamping down on the ‘permanent casual’ rort, employers and the Morrison Government teamed up to retrospectively change the law.”

The Renyard v WorkPac class action was launched in 2019 following the 2018 Federal Court judgment in WorkPac v Skene, which found casual coal miners in regular ongoing employment with advance fixed rosters were not legally casual workers and were entitled to paid leave.

The class action was union-funded and covered union members who Workpac had employed as casuals in the mining industry since 2013, with a long-term advance roster on a flat hourly rate. It would have paved the way for claims by other groups of current and former casual miners.

“Our union has been fighting the dodgy permanent casual employment model in the courts for more than 15 years and I’m enormously proud of our significant achievements in this area,” said Mr Maher.

“We have exposed the rort and made it a national issue. But with a Federal Government determined to do the bidding of the big mining and labour hire companies, the only way now to address this issue is by changing the government.”

Originally published as CFMEU drops $16m claim for casual mine worker entitlements