Government to coal giants: pay your workers’ entitlements if you like

The government is finally addressing past underpayments of coal industry workers, but there are serious shortcomings; Companies have even been rewarded for systematically hardening their employees. Stephanie Train reports.

Coal Mining Sector (Long Service Permit) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 It is being touted as a solution to decades of unpaid taxes and denials of long-service leave rights in Australia’s coal industry. However, behind the rhetoric of providing “certainty” to employers and rights to workers, there are serious implementation shortcomings of the legislation.

Concerns about the administration of the program are not new. Coal Long Service Permit (LSL) regulations have long been the subject of controversy. in 2025 MWM published a investigation It details how Coal LSL, jointly run by representatives of the CFMEU and the Minerals Council for more than two decades, operated as a private tax collector, handling billions of dollars of employer taxes, relying largely on employer-reported data and with limited external review.

Private tax collectors. The billion-dollar secret of the coal industry

Rewarded for noncompliance

The bill creates a voluntary scheme that allows employers with unpaid tax liabilities to enter into payment arrangements for up to six years; The last 20% of past debts are waived after 80% are paid. This effectively rewards employers for systematically failing to pay workers their long service leave entitlements.

in it second reading speechMinister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth said waiving 20% ​​of employer debt “represents a balanced approach that aims to encourage employer participation, maintain the viability of the scheme and support employers with significant tax liabilities”.

Explanatory Note It also makes clear how much discretion employers are given under the scheme.

“During this process, employers will evaluate their workforce and track records to determine which employees are eligible for or have been in the Program for the past. Employers will ultimately determine the scope of a payment arrangement.”

It also states:

Employers are not required to meet all of their obligations:

“While it is intended to cover all eligible employees and all qualifying periods of service for which unpaid tax is owed, employers will be able to choose which employees and specific periods of service the payment arrangement will cover.”

The bill allows employers to participate in the program by simply providing written notice, without providing any employee or wage information at this stage, and allows employers to withdraw from the process at any time.

Employers are also not required to include all employees in a draft or final arrangement.

Coal LSL allowed to make ‘reasonable assumptions’

The bill allows Coal LSL Corporation to make “reasonable assumptions” when creating service records where documentation is missing or incomplete; The explanatory note acknowledges that the situation is widespread due to the historical failure of employers to keep or provide records.

Although this provision is framed as a tool to help employees access long service leave in cases where their employers keep incomplete records, it gives significant power to the Authority. At the same time, workers (many of whom may no longer be working in the industry) may have limited ability to verify or challenge assumptions made on their behalf.

According to the Explanatory Memorandum, if an employee has evidence proving that he/she has worked beyond the period declared by his/her employer, he/she can “submit this to the Company and request a deficiency service review”.

Because this plan is completely voluntary for employers, they will not be required to automatically pay these benefits. It will be at the discretion of Coal LSL to initiate a lawsuit against the employer on behalf of the employee to recover the right.

The employee has little or no power to force his employer to pay him

long service leave entitlements owed to them under this scheme

Employers “heavily involved” in consultation process

National employers’ organization and corporate lobby group, Australian Industry Group, welcomed The government’s aid package describes the bill as a “hugely welcome development” and says many employers face “significant financial difficulties” due to uncertainty around historical tax coverage.

CEO Innex Willox said the Australian Industry Group was “heavily involved” in the government’s consultation process for the bill.

Under the bill, employers who enter into payment arrangements are effectively protected from collection actions during the arrangement period.

Accordingly reporting Many employers in Australia were facing “difficulty and potential bankruptcy” when they had to immediately pay back all past debts.

As the explanatory note itself acknowledges,

In some cases, employers may owe more than 15 years.

The number of employers failing to pay these benefits raises a deeper question: Why were employers allowed to accrue such debts without intervention?

“Almost every report was wrong”

Sam Stephens, a coal worker employed by TESA Mining, discovered significant underpayments simply because he kept meticulous records.

Stephens contacted Coal LSL in 2019 after approaching the eight-year service milestone. “I called at the end of the eighth year to access my long service leave,” he said. “They told me I had six months left, so I thought, ‘wait a minute, that’s not right’.”

Stephens requested the records his employer had provided to Coal LSL and compared them to five years of his own pay slips. What he found was alarming.

“I showed that my working hours reported by TESA to Coal LSL every month for five years were inaccurate,” Stephens said.

Of the 56 payslips he examined, there was only one instance in which his employer correctly reported working hours to Coal LSL. In total, his employer underreported his working hours by a staggering 2,121 hours.

In November 2019, Sam attended a meeting with stakeholder manager Kylie Rooke and managing director Matthew Trotter, who were both working at the Coal LSL offices.

Coal LSL acknowledged the underpayment and arranged long service leave correctly, but Stephens says many workers may never uncover similar discrepancies because they have not kept payslips for years.

“I also told my colleagues to call and ask for the Coal LSL records,” he said. “But at that point they stopped giving employees their records.”

“Coal LSL is obliged by legislation to take the employer’s word,” Stephens added.

If the employer is dishonest, Coal LSL will not help you.

Department response

MWM It submitted a detailed list of questions to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth, asking for estimates of the total value of unpaid taxes, the number of workers and employers affected, why the scheme was made voluntary and why no new enforcement or penalty mechanisms were included in the legislation.

Instead of answering these questions, the Ministry made a general statement defending the bill.

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A spokesperson said the legislation “creates a voluntary, time-limited route for employers to meet historic outstanding tax liabilities and participate in the Coal LSL Scheme”, suggesting it would “support timely access to long service leave entitlements for workers”.

The Department said recent Full Federal Court decisions clarifying the scope of the scheme had resulted in “a number of employers receiving unpaid long service leave levies” and that the Bill introduced a “voluntary, streamlined mechanism” that would allow these employers to repay their obligations and participate in the scheme.

The spokesman defended the 20% debt waiver by saying it was “offered to encourage uptake” and claimed the Coal LSL board had safeguards in place, including payment arrangements, audits and approval of structured timeframes to resolve legacy debts “while maintaining the integrity of the Scheme”.

The department did not provide figures on the total value of unpaid taxes, how many employers or workers were affected, or explain why the government opposed mandatory compliance or new enforcement powers, despite acknowledging that some employers had accumulated more than 15 years of unpaid debt.

A spokesman for Minister Rishworth said the reforms would “deliver fairness and certainty for workers in the black coal mining industry and their employers”.

“The new scheme is designed to ensure eligible employees have a clear pathway to access 100% of their hard-earned long service leave entitlements in a timely manner,” the spokesperson said.

“The 20% discount exists solely to encourage employers to participate in the voluntary scheme for inheritance payments, which enables these employees to access 100% of their entitlements more quickly,” according to the spokesperson.

MWM Put a separate list of questions on Coal LSL to seek an explanation as to why a significant number of records are missing and to put in place mechanisms to enable employers to enter into payment arrangements that accurately account for the rights they owe their employees. Coal LSL did not respond to a request for comment.

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Stephanie is a journalist with a passion for uncovering stories that will hold the power to account. With experience in both law and journalism, he worked at The Guardian and worked as a paralegal, where he assisted Crikey’s defense team in the high-profile libel case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. His reporting has been recognized nationally, earning him the 2021 Guardians of Democracy Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.