Hundreds of Illawarra coal miners have been stood down from their jobs after mine contracting company Delta SBD went into administration.
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Delta, which employed more than 300 coal miners across the Illawarra, has announced a trading halt and called in administrators Grant Thornton.
The mine workers, who have already endured an uncertain few years of mine restructuring and job cuts, found out how seriously their jobs were under threat when they were stood down on Wednesday afternoon, the Mercury understands.
Delta operates Wollongong Coal’s Wongawilli mine where CFMEU district vice-president Bob Timbs said there were close to 100 workers. This mine’s future is now threatened and Wollongong Coal is also in an ASX trading halt.
Delta is also involved with operations at South32’s Appin mine (up to 200 workers) and Peabody’s Metropolitan Colliery at Helensburgh (more than 50 workers), Mr Timbs said.
Not only were workers concerned their jobs may be gone, their accrued entitlements were now in the hands of the company’s administrators.
“It’s my understanding that all employees of Delta mining bar a small number have been stood down as of this afternoon,” Mr Timbs said.
“It’s very disappointing. There’s a lot of service and a lot of entitlements tied up in Delta.”
Mr Timbs said he was pleased the administrator had already been in touch and said they would work with the union regarding what workers are owed.
“The administrators are undertaking an urgent assessment of the business to identify steps that may be taken to stabilise the business,” administrator Said Jahani said.
There had been an indication all was not well on Tuesday when Delta requested a trading halt on the Australian Securities Exchange “pending an announcement regarding the solvency of the company”.
“We’ve known for a while they had cash-flow problems but we hadn’t realised it was this bad,” Mr Timbs said.
“It did come as a bit of a shock to us – the company certainly kept it close to their chest.”
Delta also has operations in the Hunter Valley and in Queensland.
The Mercury contacted head office in Campbelltown on Wednesday afternoon but was told the administrators were in the building and no-one could comment yet.
Do you know more? Email cos@illawarramercury.com.au or blangford@fairfaxmedia.com.au
