Shift Miner Magazine
Feature
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Half empty or half full? I
F you’ve worked in mining long enough, chances are you’ve been made redundant once before. Or probably twice. That’s the boom-bust nature of commodities, which is easy to say standing on the sidelines, but it comes with a hefty human cost if your job is in the firing line. For thousands of Queensland miners and for thousands more working in support industries - 2014 has been a tough year. Many have lost their jobs, and many more fear a similar fate awaits them. It’s taking its toll. Dr Jennifer Bowers is the CEO of the Australasian Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health and has been looking closely at this issue.
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17th November 2014
“One of the key risk factors for mental distress at the moment is worrying ‘am I going to be next?” she told Shift Miner. “In mining I can tell you that between one in three to one in four workers are showing signs of mental distress depending on which site they work on - if redundancies are being handed out or if it’s one of the better managed sites. “That’s between 26 to 33 per cent, and the national average is 20 per cent.” So how do you stop yourself becoming a statistic? And is it really possible to turn a redundancy into an opportunity? Shift Miner takes an indepth look at what happens if you lose your job, and where to from here.
Shift Miner Magazine
D-Day C
Feature
www.shiftminer.com
FMEU district vice president Steve Pierce watched the axe fall four times during his mining career, and twice it landed on his head. “Redundancies just absolutely gut a workforce,” he told Shift Miner. “But I’ve never seen any that come completely out of the blue, you can usually smell it in the wind. “You start to get a feel for it, there is no money to do things and there are people around you’ve never seen before and you just get the sense something is going to go down.” Many Queensland miners would know that feeling, most sites have been on tenterhooks for 12 months with rumours constantly circling the Coalfields about where the next round of cuts is most likely. Unfortunately, when the day does comes and management announces jobs
will go, the uncertainty continues. “The thing that is uncertain is who goes,” said Confiance director and HR specialist Peter Cross. “If you’ve got a workforce of 400 and 100 have to go, then who will they be? “What should happen is a transparent selection process. “From a business point of view you want to keep your best people so it’s about how to arrive at that outcome. “Good employers have a transparent selection process but I don’t think that is happening at the moment, I would be surprised if it is.” The CFMEU’s Steve Pierce agrees. “The thing we don’t have any more is a defined process for how people are selected. “It’s not last on, first off, it’s the ugly side and people are being targeted because they raise safety issues or stand up for others or because they have a role in the lodge [union].”
How much am I owed?
T
he good news is that while the selection process might not be transparent, if you’re in the firing line what you’re entitled to is very clear. “The majority would already have done their calculations and know if they’re going to get the flick what they’re worth,” said Mr Cross. “What they are entitled to is typically straight forward, it’s in their contract or the EBA and it is quite prescriptive. “The only thing that might not be clear is the net value of the redundancy. “Most companies will give you a gross number but there are some potential tax benefits that individuals might not realise so it’s best to talk to your accountant.” The CFMEU’s Steve Pierce also urges workers to speak to their accountant if they are considering taking a voluntary redundancy (VR). “People can do the rough calculations on what it might be worth as a gross, but it’s the intricacies of the tax-free threshold and things like that make it complicated,” he said. The other choice you don’t have is how the money is paid - it will simply arrive in your nominated bank account in one lump sum.
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