Mining company made payment errors related to redundant employees' personal leave balance
Peabody Energy Australia has back-paid nearly $5 million to 197 underpaid employees as it entered an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) with the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) after errors in employees' personal leave-related benefit.
The company, which is a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of its US-based parent firm, back-paid former employees a total of $4,982,070. This includes $988,568 in interest and $20,511 in superannuation.
According to the FWO, Peabody Energy self-reported the underpayments in May 2023 after a remediation process to assess if employees that it made redundant were paid out their accrued personal leave balance.
The remediation process followed discontinued Federal Court proceedings, where a judge found that employees terminated by way of redundancy were entitled to be paid out their accrued personal leave balance under the relevant Black Coal Mining Industry Award 2010 and 2020.
Peabody admitted that it did not pay out accrued and untaken personal leave to employees it made redundant under the belief that personal leave-related benefit was not due to employees.
It also reported that it failed to pay the allowance component of wages for accrued and outstanding annual leave for redundant employees, as well as the allowance component of their wages for the termination notice period for those who were made redundant.
The underpaid...
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