137 jobs lost at Stockton Mine

6 June 2014

Media Release

137 jobs lost at Stockton Mine

137 jobs will be lost at the Stockton coal mine on the West Coast due to low coal prices, a high Kiwi dollar, and serious mismanagement of Solid Energy’s finances by its previous Board and the government.

Workers were told today that Solid Energy will begin consultation on a proposal to cut 102 mining jobs and 35 management jobs at the mine.

“We didn’t have to end up here,” says Garth Elliott, EPMU organiser for the Stockton miners. “Everyone knows times are tough in coal mining, but the company has no ability to weather the current conditions.

“That’s because the government allowed Solid Energy to rack up debt and overvalue itself in the hope they could flog it off as part of the asset sales programme.

“They made decisions on the basis of short-sighted greed, and the miners are paying the price for it today.”

The EPMU represents over 300 miners at Stockton. The union will work with Solid Energy management to ensure any redundancies are made as fairly as possible.

EPMU members are entitled to redundancy pay under the terms of their collective agreement.

ENDS

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