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Host employer fined for excluding on-hire workers from sites

A host employer that excluded two workers from its sites after they raised safety concerns has been ordered to pay $140k in penalties and compensation.

In the first case, Federal Court Acting Chief Justice Berna Collier ordered BM Alliance Coal Operations (BMA) to pay the Mining and Energy Union $80k in pecuniary penalties, as well as $15k in compensation to a WorkPac machinery operator, after finding its conduct "undermined workplace health and safety in a highly dangerous environment".

In her November 2022 liability judgment, Acting Chief Justice Collier found BMA unlawfully "demobilised" the WorkPac employee, who worked at its Goonyella Riverside coal mine, shortly after she refused to dump a load in a poorly-lit area...