Peabody has abandoned its third lockout of workers at the Wambo Coal Handling and Preparation Plant, near Singleton, after the Mining and Energy Union launched urgent Fair Work Commission proceedings challenging the move.
The company has also agreed to pay the plant’s 19 workers for the latest lockout period, along with three earlier days on which it refused to accept employees for work. The union challenged the lockout on the basis that Peabody issued the notice almost two weeks after the last instance of employee industrial action, with no industrial action occurring at the time the notice was issued.
Mining and Energy Union Northern Mining and NSW Energy District President Robin Williams said the outcome exposed a company more focused on beating workers than bargaining with them.
“This is the third lockout during bargaining,” he said.
“Every time Peabody has had a choice between improving its offer or locking workers out again, it has chosen the lockout.”
Williams said Peabody’s latest strategy had backfired.
“Peabody thought another lockout would pressure workers into accepting less. Instead, it abandoned the lockout and ended up paying the workers anyway,” he said.
Williams pointed to the Australian Labor Party’s recent National Conference commitment to reform lockout laws so employers cannot lock workers out for extended periods over industrial action lasting only hours, saying the Wambo dispute demonstrated exactly why such changes were needed.
Peabody has previously defended its offer publicly, saying it would take rotating-roster workers to more than $219,400 a year by the end of the four-year agreement, inclusive of superannuation and production bonuses.
