Coal Long Service Leave Corporation inquiry called by federal government and welcomed by One Nation

The review called by the Minister for Workplace Relations, Michaelia Cash, was announced last month after One Nation secured it as a condition for supporting the Coalition's controversial "permanent casuals" laws.

The review is being conducted by consultancy firm KPMG, which has taken submissions from interested parties and is due to report to the minister by year's end.

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KPMG says submissions to the inquiry are confidential, but the Mining and Energy Union (as the mining and energy division of the CFMEU is now branding itself) has published its submission on its website.

The union submission acknowledges a number of shortcomings in Coal LSL, including the discriminatory treatment of "sham casual" mineworkers who had either been denied long service eligibility altogether or had their hours substantially under-reported.

However, despite these problems the union says "the existing governance structure . . . has served the coal mining industry well", and its only suggested change is the addition of two "independent" directors.

Senator Roberts said this was entirely inadequate, as the basis for his complaints in the first place was that the board - comprised evenly of union and employer representatives - had inherent conflicts of interest that could not be overcome.

"Our main thrust with the Coal LSL review is on its atrocious governance, and despite what the union says, it is beyond argument that all of these problems have accumulated under the present board structure, which has not responded to the problems despite them being pointed out repeatedly," Senator Roberts said.

Senator Roberts said it was not surprising the union submission made no mention of his campaign, as the union had fought his push to expose the plight of casual mineworkers every inch of the way.

"As well as raising these matters in parliament I wrote to the union and to Joel Fitzgibbon as MP for Hunter inviting them to discuss these issues with me," Senator Roberts said.

"I received no replies and both disparaged my public revealing of the problems with Coal LSL.

"That both the CFMEU and Labor now try to take credit for raising the issues confirms the dishonesty, incompetence and/or lack of care for workers within Labor and the Hunter CFMEU.

"It confirms that I have been correct from the very start of our work on these issues two years ago. I was correct because I listened to the miners themselves who provided extensive detailed data and actual documents."

The industry body Coal Services is run by the Mining and Energy Union (50 per cent) and the NSW Minerals Council and the Queensland Resources Council (25 per cent each) after the federal/state Joint Coal Board was abolished in the 1990s and its responsibilities passed by legislation to the union and employer bodies.

The Coal Long Service Leave Corporation is a federal government corporation.

The Coal LSL website says its board consists of three directors representing coal companies, two directors from the CFMEU and one representing other coal unions.

The NSW Minerals Council said it did not lodge a submission to the inquiry because it had already spoken to KPMG in earlier private sessions.

Coal LSL chief executive Darlene Perks has acknowledged at Senate estimates hearings that some employers had under-reported the hours - and so payments - they made to the fund.

Coal LSL's 2020-21 corporate plan says it will "harness our regulatory powers to take a stronger stance on noncompliance, using the suitable litigatory measures where applicable".

Historically, the levy on employers was 2.7 per cent of employee's wages, but Coal Services says this was reduced to 2 per cent as a result of a fund surplus.

Coal LSL said employers could not retrieve money paid in payroll levies if the employee left the industry inside of eight years.

It said these levy payments were retained in the pooled fund to cover liabilities should the employee return to the industry within eight years - the amount of time an employee can be away from the industry and retain their accrued leave.

"In all likelihood, the employee who leaves may return to the industry with another employer who would then be liable to pay the full eight years' worth of leave. So the money is retained in the Fund to reimburse that employer," Coal LSL said.

The inquiry's terms of reference include "potential additions to the compliance and enforcement framework to ensure adherence to employer obligations and fraud risk/s".

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article wrongly said employers could retrieve the money paid to cover an employee's long service if the person left inside of eight years.

The earlier version also had an incorrect ownership structure for Coal LSL, although it and Coal Services are both administered by boards with union and coal industry representatives.

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