The approximately 250 Rstar contractors make up half of the mine’s workforce.<\/p>\n
Mining and Energy Union (MEU) South Western District President Bob Timbs said the company had a clear choice \u2014 to pay its bills and get the mine running, or sell it.<\/p>\n
“SIMEC need to pay RStar so they can pay their people,” he said. “Either get the mine running again or get out of the way.”<\/p>\n
He added that the workforce had been strung along for months while the owners refused to make decisions about Tahmoor’s future.<\/p>\n
“Workers have done their part,” Mr Timbs said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They deserve better than silence and excuses from a billionaire who’s lost interest.”<\/p>\n
Independent Wollondilly MP Judy Hannan echoed those concerns, saying the situation was “sad” and the workers had been let down by a lack of transparency from the mine’s owners.<\/p>\n
She said the situation was devastating for RStar employees, and uncertainty remained around the future of the approximately 150 people directly employed by the mine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“One person would be too many,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We want everyone back at work. It affects the whole community and the mental health of many families in the area.”Mine ‘in limbo’<\/p>\n
Tahmoor Colliery has advised workers it will no longer be able to pay them amid ongoing financial difficulties.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Tim Fernandez)<\/p>\n
The stand-down comes after months of uncertainty at the underground mine, which supplies metallurgical coal to GFG Alliance’s Whyalla Steelworks.<\/p>\n
Financial difficulties have persisted since the mine was forced to close nine months ago, leaving contractors and employees in limbo.<\/p>\n
Ms Hannan said that while some workers had already found part-time roles elsewhere due to the prolonged uncertainty, many were still waiting for clarity on their employment.<\/p>\n
She agreed with the union that the owner needed to restart operations or sell it to someone who could manage it effectively.<\/p>\n
“The community deserves stable jobs, and this mine is a quality asset that shouldn’t be left in limbo,” she said.<\/p>\n
The union has called for urgent meetings with both SIMEC and the NSW government to ensure action is taken if the owners continue to stall.<\/p>\n
Mr Timbs said the government may need to intervene to protect local jobs, the community, and taxpayer interests.<\/p>\n
“Tahmoor has reserves of high-demand steelmaking coal waiting to be mined. It’s time for SIMEC to stop wasting everyone’s time and do the right thing,” he said.<\/p>\n
For now, workers remain stood down without pay, and the future of the mine hangs in the balance, with both the union and local representatives pressing for immediate resolution.<\/p>\n
The contractor is set to hold a meeting tomorrow.<\/p>\n
GFG Alliance and the NSW government have been contacted for comment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The billionaire owner of a NSW coal mine is being urged to either sell up or pay his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,12334,9618,37159,145182],"class_list":["post-243560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-coal-mining","tag-job-losses","tag-sanjeev-gupta","tag-tahmoor-coal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}