Workers at Maitland’s Abel underground mine will learn their fate on Tuesday when owners Yancoal plan to release details of their employee redundancy package.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 278 workers were left on tenter hooks when Yancoal announced on Friday that 170 jobs would go because of market pressures.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union northern district president Peter Jordan said it was a cruel blow for the predominantly Maitland workforce.
“The announcement was made on Friday, but the company wouldn’t engage in any redundancy discussions at that time,” he said.
“When this happens [redundancies announced] you want to discuss it and it’s left the workforce gutted [because] they don’t know what’s going on.”
The Abel mine, off John Renshaw Drive, is one of three Yancoal projects in the Hunter Valley.
The job cuts are in addition to 48 redundancies made at Abel in October.
Production at the company’s Austar mine near Cessnock has resumed, albeit on a smaller scale, since two men were killed in the 2014 wall collapse.
Yancoal cut 35 jobs at Austar in October and aims to cut 55 further positions from the Paxton pit in this latest announcement.
All up it has announced 220 job cuts across its Hunter workforce but hasn’t yet touched the Ashton mine at Singleton.
Yancoal will revise its Abel roster in August in another blow for workers.
“It’s already tough for miners in the Maitland area when employment is at 12 per cent,” Mr Jordan said.
“You can only take it back one step from here and that’s care and maintenance.”
Yancoal will sit down with workers on Tuesday morning to flesh out the redundancy plan it wants completed by August 7.
“This has been a difficult decision for the business and, while we have taken every step over the last year to try and avoid today’s announcement, unfortunately we do not have any further options available at this time, ‘’ Yancoal spokesperson James Rickards said.
“Our management teams are speaking with employees at the operations and ensuring they have access to the necessary external employment, redundancy and counselling services required to assist them throughout the process.”
