About the Black Coal Mining Industry Award (Black Coal Award)

Who it covers

The Black Coal Award employers in the black coal mining industry and their employees who are within the classifications of the award.

A coal mining employee:

• works in the black coal mining industry and is employed by an employer in the black coal mining industry, or
• is employed in the black coal mining industry and works at or near the location where black coal is mined, and whose work is:
  • directly linked to the day to day operations of a black coal mine, and
  • is covered by one of the classifications or types of work mentioned in the award.

The ‘black coal mining industry’ includes:

• extracting or mining black coal on a coal mining lease (through either underground or surface mining methods)
• processing black coal at a coal handling or processing plant on or next to a coal mining lease
• transporting black coal on a coal mining lease
• other work on a coal mining lease that is directly connected to extracting, mining, and/or processing of black coal.

There is a long history of disputed case law about the meaning of ‘black coal mining industry’, and assessing coverage of the Award is not always straightforward.

Very often an employee will be covered by more than one award, and it is necessary to assess which award classification is most appropriate according to the work performed by the employee and the environment in which the employee normally performs the work.

The position classifications are broadly described in 2 categories, Schedule A – Production and Engineering Employees and Schedule B – Staff Employees.

Some examples of employees who may be covered by the Black Coal Award include:

• mineworkers
• machinery maintenance employees whose work is linked to the day to day operations of the mine
• administrative and clerical workers whose work is linked to the day to day operations of the mine
• surveyors
• forepersons
• geologists
• engineers

About pay under the SCHADS Award

Employees must receive at least their award-pay, which can be calculated using:

• the pay calculator at https://calculate.fairwork.gov.au/FindYourAward
• the Pay Guide at https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/minimum-wages/pay-guides

Common Issues for Understanding the SCHADS Award

Do part-time employees need set hours of work?

When engaging a part-time employee, the employer will need to agree in writing to:

• a regular pattern of work including the number of ordinary hours to be worked each week (the guaranteed hours), and
• the days of the week the employee will work and the starting and finishing times each day.

These hours can be varied in writing by agreement.

What about casual employees?

It is important to be aware that production and engineering employees cannot be engaged as casuals under the award, although staff employees can.

Are casual employees entitled to a minimum number of hours?

Casual employees must be paid for a minimum of 4 hours.

What are the ordinary hours of work?

An employee’s ordinary hours of work are 35 hours per week, or an average of 35 hours per week over a roster cycle. This can have implications for calculating overtime and also for paying superannuation under the superannuation guarantee scheme.

Ordinary hours per shift should not exceed 10 hours except in certain circumstances, including if the employer and a majority of affected employees agree.

Meal breaks during rostered hours

An employee is entitled to a paid meal break of 30 minutes for each 5 hours worked during rostered hours.

Annual leave for full and part-time employees?

A full-time employee is entitled to accrue annual leave of 175 ordinary hours (5 weeks) which increases to 210 hours (6 weeks) if the employee is a 7-day roster employee or workers a roster which requires ordinary shifts on public holidays and not less than 272 ordinary hours per year on Sundays.

How is annual leave paid?

An employee who takes annual leave must be paid the greater of:

• their ordinary rate of pay + 20% of that rate, or
• their rostered earnings for the period of annual leave, which includes all rostered overtime and rostered public holidays paid at 200%, but not including shift allowances, except in the case of seven-day roster employees.

Also, an employee who receives over-award payments so that their base rate of pay is higher than the award-rate, is entitled to receive the higher rate while on paid annual leave.

An Industry Specific Redundancy Scheme

The Black Award has its own redundancy scheme.  An employee is made redundant where their employment is terminated by the employer, because the employer no longer requires the job done by the employee to be done by anyone except where this is due to the ordinary and customary turnover of labour, or because of insolvency or bankruptcy of the employer.  This does not apply to employees engaged for a fixed term or a specified task.

An employee who is made redundant is entitled to one ordinary week’s pay for each completed year of employment.

Also in many cases the employee will also be entitled to retrenchment pay equal to 2 ordinary weeks’ pay for each completed year of employment.

Those payments do not apply if the employer obtains or causes to be made available for the employee work that:

• the employee is competent to perform,
• is in a position that carries the same or a higher classification rate of pay than the employee’s previous position,
• can reasonably be regarded as permanent, and
• allows the employee to reside in the same general locality as the employee’s previous residence.

Rights on Termination

The National Employment Standard sets out requirements for notice of termination by an employer, and the Black Coal Award has some additional requirements.

Where termination occurs due to redundancy an employer must give 4 weeks’ notice or 5 weeks if the employee is over 45 years old and has completed more than 5 years of continuous service with the employer.

An employee who has 70 or more hours of untaken personal leave must be paid for that entitlement if the employment is terminated:

• by retrenchment,
• by retirement at or after age 60,
• by the employer because of ill health, or
• by death.

An employee must give at least one weeks’ notice of termination of employment.

Staying on Top of the Black Coal Mining Industry Award

At WorkLegal our experienced team can answer your questions and put you on the right track.  A range of fixed-price Initial Consultations will suit most people’s needs in quickly learning what their options are.

An Initial Consultation can be an ideal opportunity for you or your business to get answers about how the Black Coal Award applies to your situation.