Dear Member,

This week, your Staff Union secured a Sick Leave pay-out for one MTW member after Yancoal initially refused.

In early 2019, one of our members in the Mining Department had a serious back injury at work. Tragically, the doctors told him that this workplace injury meant that he would probably never work again.

Now reaching the end of of his Coal Mines Insurance Worker’s Compensation, Yancoal moved to terminate our member’s employment due to his ill-health.However, it was a big shock for him to be told by Yancoal that they were not going to pay him out his 1800 hours of accrued sick leave. To argue that our member was not entitled to this payment, Yancoal tried to use a technical legal argument from employment legislation that was repealed a decade ago.

Following this, your Staff Union lawyer wrote to Yancoal, informing them that legally our member was entitled to be paid-out his sick leave according to the Black Coal Mining Industry Award 2010.

And yesterday, Yancoal agreed to pay up!

For this member, 1800 hours of Sick Leave means another 9 months of pay at his normal salary. For someone who has run out of Workers Comp and probably won’t work again, this money is extremely important to him and his family. The CSOA wishes him and his family a safe and happy future.

This win comes off the back of MTW members collectively standing together in 2018 to have your Sick Leave balances restored after Yancoal had unilaterally reduced them to zero. Only by sticking together in Union can we make sure that Staff at Mount Thorley are treated fairly and with respect.

In Union,
Tom Edwards
Senior Organiser
Collieries’ Staff and Officials Association
1 October 2020