Helensburgh's Metropolitan Colliery will cut 42 jobs as the global downturn in coal prices hits the Illawarra.
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The mine's owner, US-based Peabody Energy, has announced plans to cut 400 positions across its Australian operations, a figure which includes 170 redundancies and 230 positions lost through natural attrition.
Workers at the Metropolitan mine, one of Australia's oldest continually operating collieries, were told on Monday of the company's plans. They have been told the cuts were to "fast-track cost improvement initiatives".
A Peabody spokeswoman said voluntary redundancies would be offered first, with forced redundancies if the requisite number was not reached.
Yesterday Peabody would not make public the number of jobs to go at Helensburgh, but the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said there would be 42 jobs to go, including 29 union members.
CFMEU district vice-president Bob Timbs said he would meet Peabody tomorrow to discuss entitlements, but he doubted the full quota of job cuts would be reached voluntarily.
"Obviously when there's an announcement of this type, it's quite disturbing for the blokes," he said.
"They're all out there with mortgages, cars and families."
He said it was unlikely all who left would find mine work in the Illawarra.
"The opportunities just aren't there that there were a few years ago," he said.
"It's quite likely that the blokes who are made redundant won't be able to find employment within the local industry."
The cuts came as Peabody announced Australian earnings in the June quarter were $US112.5 million, compared with $US240.4 million in the same quarter last year. Global earnings were $US254.3 million compared with $US450.1 million for the June quarter last year.
Peabody told investors its Australian operations benefited from an increase in production volumes, and a fall in the Australian dollar. But while global demand for coal continued to grow, this was not enough to make up for the drop in the price of metallurgical coal over the past year.
A Peabody spokeswoman said the carbon tax and mining royalties also contributed.
‘‘Imposts such as the carbon tax and state government royalty increases combined with macro-economic impacts have necessitated the need for us to act,’’ she said.
But Mr Timbs wondered if the decisions were made just to boost profits.
‘‘When the carbon tax came in [the coal miners] all ran around and said the carbon tax would be the demise of many coalmines within the south-west district,’’ he said.
‘‘That certainly hasn’t happened in the Illawarra.
‘‘The continued excuses just don’t wash any more. Why are they still cutting jobs out of our local community?’’
The Mercury understands Peabody workers taking redundancy will be offered three weeks’ pay for each year of service.
