Important notice to Pacific National Bulk and Coal employees

Dec 16, 2022Pacific National Bulk Coal PN Updates

Payments during periods of Protected Industrial Action

Pacific National have once again proved to their employees that they are the employer of choice, but only if the decision is to pick the most incompetent large corporation on the planet.

The Union has become aware that Pacific National has been incorrectly withholding pay from employees
who bravely participated in Industrial Action on 24 and 25 November 2022. Members will recall this industrial action was taken in response to Pacific National’s divisive and underhanded selective lock-out, which itself was a dummy-spit in response to PN being required to follow basic rail safety rules.
We trust this was a mistake, but Pacific National has so far been slow to respond to employee requests to resolve these issues. It’s also interesting that PN has found several different ways to ultimately make the same mistake of underpaying its employees.

The Union acknowledges that members do not receive pay whilst engaged in protected industrial action pursuant to s 470(1) of the FW Act – however s470 does not allow the employer to underpay people for
work they have actually performed.

The proper way that deductions should be calculated:

If you missed one or more shifts, those shifts are not credited to your duty cycle;
Periods of leave occurring during the period of industrial action are still credited to the duty cycle in the usual way;
An RDO is not a missed shift and has no effect on payment;
If you missed shifts, and even though it is not credited to your duty cycle you still work 152 hours, there is no further deduction of wages;
If you missed shifts, and because it is not credited to your duty cycle you do not work 152 hours, the value of that missed shift(s) can be deducted from what you otherwise would have been paid,
as long as this does not result in you being paid less than the hours you actually worked.

There is a question about how long a shift would have been had it been worked for the purpose of
calculating a deduction. Such numbers should be calculated as follows:

For an advised shift, the actual duration of the shift as advised at the time it was refused;
For a Blank Line shift, 7.6 hours unless an applicable shift limit indicates it would have been shorter.

Pacific National’s dodgy calculations have included the following:

Deduction in wages for being on an RDO during the PIA period and not actually rostered to work;
Deducting amounts higher than the hours actually rostered;
Deducting amounts higher than 7.6 hours for blank line rostering;
Automatically deducting the equivalent of the maximum shift limit, despite shifts of this duration not being rostered;
Deductions for turning down shifts, despite members subsequently working the shift once the PIA ended.

These dodgy calculations have resulted in significant underpayments. For example, the Union is aware of
one member that worked over 147 hours in the relevant duty cycle but was only paid for 136 hours –
resulting in a significant underpayment of over 11 hours for work actually performed.
Wage theft cannot be tolerated in any circumstances.
If you believe that you have been underpaid as a result of protected industrial action on 24 and 25
November 2022, please complete a notification of dispute form that provides details of: