Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Hunter for the question. I acknowledge many members have been raising with me the way in which casuals are ripped off on long service leave in the black-coal mining industry, but in particular I want to single out the member for Hunter and the member for Paterson as being really strong advocates on this.

Effectively, the challenge is this: workers in the black coal industry are in an industry where, under the award, casuals don't exist. Under the award, it's only part time or full time, but under a series of enterprise agreements casuals have been established. That has been the interaction with the Commonwealth law on long service leave. It means that casuals, even if they work above 35 hours a week, hit a maximum of 35 hours.

I can explain how that means they end up not getting their entitlements. It's pretty common. For example, a standard roster at the Mt Arthur south mine in the Hunter Valley will be 48 hours, 48 hours, 60 hours and 24 hours, across four weeks. For the final one of those four weeks you get your 24 hours; for the first three, even though you're working way above 35 hours, it gets capped back down to 35 hours and you don't get your full long service leave.

It's even worse in Central Queensland, where the regular roster in the coalmining industry is seven days on and seven days off. What then happens is that, for the seven days on, you work way above 35 hours, but it gets capped down to 35. The seven days off are not part of the average at all; they're just: 'Oh, you weren't working at that time because you're a casual.' This means there are examples of casuals getting as little as half the long service leave they would otherwise be entitled to.

This is not the first time this has been raised. There was a report that went to the previous government in 2021 about how to fix the situation for casuals in the coalmining industry. They talked a lot about the coalmining industry, and—people might be stunned—what did they do to protect casuals in the coalmining industry? Nothing—absolutely nothing. This week, legislation will be introduced, because our view is that you shouldn't lose your entitlements if you're a casual. You shouldn't be in a situation where you're already facing insecurity of work, you're there long enough to qualify for long service leave, and the insecurity and rip-offs continue into the time that you're having long service leave as well.

We have, in the member for Hunter and the member for Paterson, people who are willing to champion the interests of those workers, but among those in the opposition who represent the area I referred to, Central Queensland, not one has chosen to or sought to act on this issue.

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