In a horror week for the Australian coal industry, Glencore Xstrata announced that it would shed 46 jobs at its Ravensworth underground mine in New South Wales and Peabody Energy said it would chop 450 contractor positions at its Australian coal mines.
Plunging thermal and coking coal prices, the high Australian dollar and high wages have been blamed for the employee cuts.
Glencore has confirmed that a cutback in production from its Newlands and Oaky Creek mining operations will result in a reduction of the employees by the end of 2013.
At Oaky Creek, a decision to continue production at the Oaky North mine with only one longwall in operation will result in a reduction of approximately 150 employees, pending finalisation of the changes.
At Newlands, a cutback in production at both the underground and open cut operations will result in about 300 employees losing their jobs.
About 50 jobs will be cut immediately at Newlands and the other 250 by the end of the year – including underground and open cut mineworkers, mechanical and electrical engineers, supervisors and administrative staff.
“Glencore has begun informing employees of the decision today,” it said yesterday.
“This is a difficult decision, but one that needs to be taken in the current challenging economic conditions.
“The changes are part of ongoing reviews of Glencore’s coal operations in an increasingly challenging economic climate.”
But the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has hit out at what it calls Glencore’s short-term vision for two of Queensland’s leading coal mines.
Workers were caught unawares by yesterday’s announcement, from Oaky North near Tieri and Newlands near Glenden in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, CFMEU Queensland senior vice-president Mitch Hughes said.
Since Glencore merged with Xstrata last month, the company had demonstrated a “ruthless and short-term approach to cost-cutting”, he said.
“Last year, Oakey North was the best-producing coal mine in Australia. You’d have to question the quality of management to have gone from that position to major cuts,” Hughes said.
“Mining is a volatile industry, but companies should plan ahead with a buffer to accommodate factors like short-term changes in commodity prices – rather than slashing jobs as soon as profits dip.
“These cuts will devastate the towns of Tieri and Glenden. We’ll see businesses suffer and families move away.
“Mining companies should be looking at every option possible to keep workers on, not simply slashing jobs to satisfy their overseas shareholders.”
The union was still waiting to be informed about how Glencore Xstrata would implement the job cuts, whether by natural attrition, voluntary or forced redundancy, Hughes said.
“We hope these cuts to permanent jobs don’t signal a move towards a casualised workforce with permanent workers cut to make way for contractors with fewer rights and worse conditions.”
