Unions stealing from workers? Never!

This is an update on the coal miners wage theft scandal. Now the Australian parliament is taking action.

In February this year, I alerted you to a large wage-theft scandal in which the militant construction/mining union, the CFMEU, is involved. In my Substack article Stealing from the Workers – A union agenda and the follow-up article Stealing from the workers – Part 2 deal making politics, I explained what’s going on.

There are now some major developments which are helping to build up a strong case that may lead and should lead (if justice prevails) to compensation. In this post I’ll explain the quite incredible political twist in the ‘normal’ assumptions we have about unions as well as the labour issues flowing from this situation. This unfolding story has the potential to do great harm to the Australian Labor movement and to the ALP itself if either mishandles this.

But first, a recap

What kicked the issue off in February (2024) was the release of a report by One Nation, Coal Miners Wage Theft. This included a speech in the Australian Senate by One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts which outlined the main points of the report.

In summary, coal miners working as labour-hire casual employees are NOT being paid the 25 per cent casual loading that casuals always receive. They are paid way less than the 25% loading. This has led to major underpayment of thousands of coal miners working in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and in Central Queensland mines.

This underpayment has only occurred because labour hire companies and the CFMEU made enterprise agreements that enabled the underpayments. Incredibly, the Fair Work Commission signed off on the agreements, making the underpayments ‘legal’. And this has been going on for over a decade. Thousands of coal miners have been and are still being underpaid to the tune of (on average) $32,000 a year (on 2023 figures) according to the One Nation report.

This ‘wage theft’ could well prove to be the largest incidence of wage theft in Australia’s history. Business columnist for The Australian, Robert Gottliebsen (20 May 2024) has suggested that the amount owed could be more than $100 million. I suspect that $100 million is likely to be conservative. I’ll explain why below.

The Senate makes a move

To the credit of One Nation and Senator Malcolm Roberts, they have been pushing this issue for five years. But the February 2024 report pierced through what had hitherto been confusing legalities and isolated the core, straightforward fact—namely, the non-payment of the 25 per cent casual loading.

With the release of the report, Malcolm Roberts has been talking with his Senatorial colleagues about the wage-theft problem. He has clearly been successful. On the 16 May this year the Senate passed a motion to require the government to investigate the underpayments and ‘facilitate reimbursement’ where proven. This is BIG.

The motion reads as follows (taken from the Senate Hansard):

The PRESIDENT (18:08): I will now deal with the Fair Work Amendment Bill. I will first deal with the second reading amendment circulated by Pauline Hanson's One Nation. …At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) the bill only addresses one small aspect of Australia's workplace relations system and there are many other issues that still need to be addressed, and

(ii) the bill does not address concerns about underpayments of casual miners working under enterprise agreements in the black coal mining industry; and

(b) requires the Government to investigate claims that casual miners working under enterprise agreements in the black coal mining industry are, and have been, underpaid; and

(c) if underpayments are found to have occurred, facilitate the reimbursement of the underpayments".

Significantly, the motion passed ‘on the voices’. That is, no division of the Senate occurred, so no Senator or political party could be seen to vote against the motion. Effectively, this means that the Labor Party allowed the motion to go through. That is significant.

Political implications

The One Nation report clearly implicates the CFMEU in the orchestration of the coal miners’ underpayment. Or, in the words of One Nation, ‘wage theft’. The CFMEU is a significant funder of the Australian Labor Party, so the CFMEU’s complicity in the wage theft is a massive kick in the guts for the ALP.

Assuming that this wage theft is real (and the facts look strong and have not been contested), this robs the union movement’s and ALP’s claim to the high moral ground of ‘looking after the worker’. If this messaging holds, it cuts to the core of Australian unions and the ALP’s political moral positioning in the Australian community. That is, they don’t protect workers but are complicit in stealing from workers.   This has the potential to be devastating for them.

Proving the wage theft ‘on the ground’

Those of you who have followed me for some time will be aware that, after 25 years, I/we closed Self-Employed Australia in January this year. The reason was/is straightforward. With the changes to industrial relations law by the Albanese Labor government, particularly the creation of the ‘employee-like’, parallel industrial relations system, our activities with SEA no longer fitted the new environment. When things change, move on!

Since February I’ve thrown myself into Red Union and I’m very pleased I have. This non-party political union (it does not donate money to any political party) has just broken through the 20,000-membership level. It’s growing while nearly all other unions are dying.

Most specifically, I’ve dedicated a lot of time to working with Red Union staff to establish a division in Red Union for coal miners. Here’s its Independent Workers Union of Australia Coal Workers (IWUA) Justice website.

What we’ve done is create a process where coal miners can have the wage underpayment they have likely suffered assessed for them. And we’re promoting this to coal miners who’ve been affected. We believe the number could be between 7,000 and 9,000 workers. And they are working (or have worked) in coal mines in central Queensland and the Hunter Valley in NSW.

From a stand-up start about two weeks ago, we’ve attracted our first three members and assessed their underpayments. Here are the results:

Coal miner                  Years assessed                        Underpayment assessed

Hunter NSW                2013 to 2018                                       $121,291

Qld 1                           2013 to 2021                                       $104,473

Qld 2                           2015 to 2022                                       $  99,999

The underpayments are large. It’s easy to see how the total wage theft could easily soar well above $100 million.

Lodging claim and Senate Investigations

Last Friday (31 May 2024) ‘we’ (IWUA) lodged these three underpayment assessments with the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) requesting investigation. The FWO has allocated a senior case officer to work on the claims with us.

Two days ago (4 June 2024) One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts questioned the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Fair Work Commission and the Minister in the Senate on the coal wage-theft underpayments. Here’s the video of the FWO questioning. (22 min)

IWUA/Red Union is now progressing with a membership marketing drive to coal miners. These people deserve wage justice. I’ll keep you informed of progress.