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Hunter Valley coalminer Ben Renyard. Picture: John Feder.

• EXCLUSIVE

  EWIN HANNAN

  WORKPLACE EDITOR

  @EwinHannan

  
• 12:00AM AUGUST 21, 2019
• 46 COMMENTS

The CFMEU has launched a landmark union-funded class action against prominent labour-hire firm WorkPac, seeking more than $12 million in leave entitlements for 600 coalminers it says were misclassified as casuals.

Industry groups said last night the legal action heightened their concerns that the viability of many businesses and the jobs of thousands of employees was threatened by casuals trying to “double-dip” on their entitlements by claiming annual leave on top of their casual loading.
Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said the federal government would monitor the case “very carefully”, while WorkPac accused the union of wanting businesses that engaged casuals to pay for the same entitlements twice.READ NEXTFEDERAL COURT RULINGWorkers get choccies in Cadbury challengeEWIN HANNANIt is the first class action funded by the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union but the second class action launched in the wake of the Federal Court ruling last year that casual truck driver Paul Skene was entitled to paid leave because of the regular and continuous nature of his work.CFMEU national president Tony Maher said the judgment had exposed the widespread “rort” of workers being hired as “permanent casuals”, robbing them of their legal entitlements and siphoning money to shareholders and executives.The CFMEU class action, filed by law firm Slater and Gordon, will seek to recover more than $12m in unpaid annual leave entitlements allegedly owed to at least 600 workers currently and previously employed by WorkPac since 2013.The lead applicant is Hunter Valley miner Ben Renyard, who was engaged by WorkPac to work at the Mount Thorley Warkworth mine for almost three years.He said he did the same work on the same annual roster under the same supervisor as permanent employees, but was employed casually on a flat $52 hourly rate with no sick or annual leave and no job security.“The reality of coalmining these days is that the only jobs available are casual labour hire. I hoped it would be a stepping stone to a permanent job,” he said.“I worked on a crew alongside permanent workers on the same annual roster with the same supervisor, but I got less pay and no entitlements. As a casual, you are treated like a second-class citizen.”Mr Maher said Mr Renyard’s story was “emblematic of a mining industry reliant on systemically short-changing its employees”. “Ben spent years working in what was effectively a permanent job but being called a casual and so not getting entitlements,’’ he said.Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said litigation about casual employment has “gone beyond a lawyer’s picnic — it’s a three-hatted degustation”. He called on the government to introduce legislation to address the “explosion” in class actions being pursued against employers, which he said were often funded by overseas litigation funding firms chasing profits.He said litigation funders should be regulated through the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and reasonable limits needed to be imposed on returns to plaintiff lawyers and litigation funders.Law firm Adero filed a class action against WorkPac in March, with 7000 workers alleging underpayments totalling up to $84m.Mr Maher said “unlike class action law suits funded by profit-driven litigation funders, every single cent recovered by the CFMEU’s class action will go directly back to the workers”.WorkPac is hoping a test case in the full Federal Court involving former employee Robert Rossato will overturn the Skene decision.Mr Porter said employees should be classified and paid correctly, with full access to entitlements. But he said “there was considerable concern that confusion and complexity arose by virtue of the Skene v WorkPac decision regarding the potential for double-dipping”.He said the government intervened in the Rossato case “to clarify the legal right to offset an obligation against payments already made for the same entitlements, which was not dealt with in the Skene case”.Mr Willox said the CFMEU action demonstrated a need for change to define a “casual employee” in law. “Everyone knows that casual loadings are paid in lieu of annual leave,” he said.Share this articleFacebookTwitterEmailCFMEU’s $12m class-action claim for casual entitlements