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The Federal Court has fined an employer $120k for "excluding" two on-hire workers from its sites after they raised workplace safety concerns.

In the first case, Acting Chief Justice Berna Collier ordered BM Alliance Coal Operations (BMA) to pay the Mining and Energy Union $80k in pecuniary penalties, as well as $15k in compensation to a WorkPac machinery operator, after finding its conduct "undermined workplace health and safety in a highly dangerous environment".

In her November 2022 liability judgment, Acting Chief Justice Collier found BMA unlawfully "demobilised" the WorkPac employee, who worked at its Goonyella Riverside coal mine, shortly after she refused to dump a load in a poorly-lit area...