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5 November, 2007
A key precedent was set in the UK in late October 2007 when an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that UK Coal must pay 330 miners back-wages for a sudden pit closure in 2005. The paltry £2 million pay-out, however, pales next to the precedent now set; that UK workers made redundant are entitled to the same benefits as EU workers. This especially includes mandatory consulting with trade unions on redundancy matters.
The National Union of Mineworkers’ of the UK filed the case on safety issues when bosses suddenly closed UK Coal’s Ellington Colliery in northeast England in January 2005. The mine was flooded by higher waters from the North Sea.
UK Coal averted dialogue with the union, citing external forces as the cause of the flooding, thus claiming to be exempt from a mandatory 90-day consultation period with the union over safety issues. The Employment Appeal Tribunal, however, disagreed and upheld a May ruling by a lower jobs court that UK Coal has to pay the miners’ the 90-day pay, or between £4,000-7,000 per worker.
UK Coal is an enterprise created from the privatisation of British Coal in 1993.
The ruling in Great Britain made the business elite jittery. Associations quickly called meetings of HR staff and others to dissect the ruling and its effect on other EU-UK comparisons regarding work standards. UK Coal responded by deflecting the union’s call for a quick pay-out so that money owed will help working families this Christmas. The company said it needed time to study the court ruling before deciding whether or not to appeal the case further.