THE McKell Institute report on labour hire practices in the coal industry - commissioned by the CFMEU and launched on Thursday by Labor opposition leader Anthony Albanese - comes at a crucial time for all involved.
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The report crunches the numbers in the Hunter and Queensland to conclude that up to $825 million a year is being stripped out of regional mining communities, based on the premise that the industry is employing up to 40 per cent "casual" labour.
The report is by no means the union's first foray into the debate.
The CFMEU Mining and Energy Division website highlights its various campaigns against so-called "sham casual" employment - where labour-hire workers typically earn up to 40 per cent less than their directly employed colleagues, despite doing the same work on the same rosters, often set a year in advance.
But as One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has explained in federal parliament, the union has signed off on many of the enterprise agreements that labour hire companies use to set their employment standards.
It's not a fact highlighted in the McKell report.
Indeed, in a foreword to the report, the union's national president, Tony Maher, blames the situation on a "weakness in our current workplace laws" that allows mining companies to "to bypass union-negotiated enterprise agreements with good pay and conditions won over many years".
Regardless of how individual mine operators seized on labour hire as a way of reducing their production costs, the lower pay rates and loss of conditions have seen the coal industry join various retailers and "gig" economy companies accused of ripping off workers with "wage theft".
Mr Albanese accused the Coalition of being "silent" on the casuals question, but there is no doubt that the Morrison government is keeping a close eye on the coal industry here and in Queensland.
Various class actions have been launched in the past two years to retrieve "lost" earnings - a number by Canberra law firm Adero, which was criticised by the union for doing so.
With the CFMEU having launched its own class action last year against labour hire firm WorkPac, the stakes are high. The $825 million study estimate excludes other NSW mining areas, such as the Illawarra.
Add Wollongong, and it becomes a billion-dollar question.
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Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
