Resources behemoth BHP has been ordered to pay close to $100,000 after dozens of coal miners were unlawfully required to work on Christmas and Boxing Day.

The penalty, handed down in the Federal Court on Tuesday, comes six years after 85 employees, including a mother who needed to ask a person from her children’s drama class to babysit her kids, were rostered on those two public holidays without being offered a reasonable right to refuse the shifts.

Workers employed by BHP’s labour hire arm Operation Services (OS) at the Daunia mine, near Moranbah in central Queensland , will now be compensated between $800 and $2400 in a landmark decision just before the start of the festive season.

BHP was also penalised $15,000, which it will pay to the Mining and Energy Union (MEU).

The Dauni

See Full Page