TWO Mount Thorley coal miners have been sacked and a third given a final warning after a workmate was bullied for two years, apparently for working too hard.
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The Fair Work Commission found earlier this month that Scott Kedwell, Brendan Neuss and Zachary Fay had used their cars on the evening of February 11 this year to “box in” a colleague, known only as X, as he drove up a hill along the Golden Highway out of the mine, forcing X to drive past his usual right turn home onto the Mitchell Line of Road.
The commission heard evidence the men were “laughing” at X as it happened, and they later tried to defend their actions as “a joke”.
But the commission found it was the latest in a string of bullying incidents that X had been subjected to.
The commission heard that X had not complained about the bullying, which included putting rocks in his bag, hiding his bag and making jokes at his expense.
On the afternoon of the driving incident, X’s helmet had been knocked off his head when one or more people threw rags soaked with petroleum jelly at him: the commission said that on the balance of probabilities “Mr Fay and/or Mr Neuss were involved”.
The commission heard X had told his supervisor: “I don’t know why they keep playing pranks on me. I don’t know what I am doing or saying that might cause it. I just want to come to work, do what the supervisor tells me, then go home. I don’t want to be the black sheep of the team.”
He said Mr Neuss and Mr Fay had told him to “stop doing what you’re doing, stop working how you do, you’re breaking down our conditions”. He thought this comment referred to his “work ethic and the amount of work he gets through during a shift”.
Mr Kedwell and Mr Neuss were dismissed by Rio Tinto after an investigation into the incident and Mr Fay given a final warning. The matter entered the public sphere when Mr Kedwell launched an unfair dismissal case, which was unsuccessful.
NSW Minerals Council chief executive Stephen Galiliee told the Newcastle Herald last year that that there was “no evidence to suggest these issues [workplace bullying or harrassment] are more prevalent in mining than in other sectors”.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union also disputes descriptions of the coal industry as having a “bullying culture”.
Even so, the Herald has reported incidents of bullying over the years – and not only in regard to union membership and the targeting of employees who work through strikes as “scabs”.
Labor amended the Fair Work Act in 201 to allow someone bullied at work to apply to the commission for an order to stop the bullying.
