When concerns surfaced that casual coal miners were being paid less than they should, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) went looking. The results, published on 8 October 2026, are more reassuring than many expected: no evidence of systemic non-compliance, and most of the money returned to workers came from employers who put their hands up first.

Why the FWO investigated

In August 2024 the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations asked the FWO to consider investigating the black coal mining industry. The request followed debate in Parliament, during passage of the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2024, over claims that casual miners working under enterprise agreements were being underpaid compared with the Black Coal Mining Industry Award.

The central question was a technical but important one: how do casual employment, enterprise agreements and the Black Coal Mining Industry Award interact, and were casual workers being engaged, classified and paid correctly?

The headline numbers

The FWO investigated 56 cases, which fell into three groups:

The FWO’s overall verdict: isolated instances of non-compliance, limited in number and scope, with nothing pointing to systemic problems across the industry.

Self-reporting did the heavy lifting

Almost all of the $8.2 million came from four employers who self-reported. Between them they admitted breaches involving:

• annual leave and personal leave entitlements
• base rates of pay, overtime and local public holidays
• progression of apprentices and trainees under the Award or enterprise agreements

The largest was Peabody Energy Australia Coal, which signed an Enforceable Undertaking after rectifying $4.9 million — including about $1 million in interest and super — to 197 workers. Those underpayments related almost entirely to full-time employees who weren’t paid out accrued personal leave balances and allowances when their employment ended between 2016 and 2023. A court had confirmed that under the Award, employees made redundant were entitled to have personal leave balances of 70 hours or more paid out.

Of the other three self-reports, one resulted in a Compliance Notice and two are still under investigation.

Individual complaints: mostly compliant

Thirty-eight cases involved concerns about an individual worker’s entitlements. The FWO found full compliance in 31. In the seven where breaches were found, it issued six Compliance Notices — one employer received two and back-paid over $19,000 to two employees — and one Infringement Notice for pay slip and record-keeping failures.

The problems were familiar ones: annual leave (including on termination), public holiday pay, personal leave, payment in lieu of notice, and pay slips and records.

The casual question

Fourteen historical complaints went to the heart of the issue — casual employment under enterprise agreements versus the Award.

• Eight were fully compliant.
• Two couldn’t proceed because the businesses were no longer registered.
• In the remaining four, the FWO issued a contravention letter and three closure-and-caution letters over small historical underpayments, mostly outside the six-year limitation period, plus one confined record-keeping breach.

Across the investigation, the FWO found that:

• casual workers were generally engaged consistently with the statutory definition of casual employment, though casual status must be assessed case by case
• there was no widespread failure to pay a casual loading — most were paid the 25% loading or a higher all-in rate under their agreement
• in the historical cases, employees were generally better off overall compared with the minimum entitlements in their enterprise agreements

What this means for employers

Self-reporting pays off. Employers who found problems and came forward accounted for most of the money returned to workers. The FWO consistently treats co-operation and voluntary disclosure more favourably than issues it has to uncover itself.

The usual suspects still trip people up. Leave on termination, public holidays, overtime and apprentice progression are where errors cluster — in mining as elsewhere. Peabody’s case shows how one misread entitlement, repeated across years of terminations, can grow into millions.

Know how your instruments interact. Where an enterprise agreement, the Award and the Fair Work Act’s casual definition all apply, payroll settings need to reflect all three. Regular audits are cheaper than remediation.

Records matter. Even in a largely compliant industry, pay slip and record-keeping failures drew penalties.

What this means for workers

The findings don’t mean every miner was paid correctly — several were not, and some investigations are ongoing. If you think you’ve been underpaid, check your pay slips against your enterprise agreement and the Award, and contact the Fair Work Ombudsman at fairwork.gov.au or on 13 13 94 for free help.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman media release and Black Coal Mining Industry Report, 8 October 2026. This post is general information, not legal advice.