Jamie-Lee Corless-Crane was found to have been unfairly sacked over a $200,000 mine issue. (Source: Facebook/Instagram)
A FIFO miner has won a huge compensation payout after she was unfairly sacked for a major mine debacle. Jamie-Lee Corless-Crane was dismissed from her role as a pit technician in early January by Aurenne Management Services in Western Australia.
She was deployed at the Mt Ida mine site near Menzies, and was accused of letting nearly 60 ounces of gold go to a dump instead of a processing plant. But the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ruled in Corless-Crane's favour after finding there were people far more senior who should have been responsible for the mistake.
"I am satisfied that a remedy of compensation of 16 weeks is appropriate. I note that this amount does not include a component for shock, humiliation or distress," Melanie Binet, deputy president of the Fair Work Commission, wrote in her assessment.
On January 7, Corless-Crane flew up to the mine site and commenced the first of her night shifts.
During a pre-shift meeting, staff were shown the relevant mining sites and excavators that were in operation during the day and night.
However, the FWC was told Corless-Crane was given an "obsolete" map, which she relied on during her shift.
"An excavator operator contacted Ms Corless-Crane to inform her he was nearing what he believed to be a Block containing ore (the Wrongly Marked Location)," the FWC noted.
"She says that her efforts to accurately identify the location were further hampered by the poor light and the fact that it was the early hours of the morning of her first shift on site."
Even though the markings on the ground didn't match the map she was given, the FIFO worker asked the excavator operator for their opinion, and they agreed it was the correct spot. To make matters worse, the GPS system on the excavator wasn't working that night.
Because excavation work had been done on the wrong location, an estimated 54 ounces of gold, worth roughly $200,000, was taken to waste piles rather than being taken to the plant for processing.
That total of lost ore was also mined during the day before Corless-Crane's shift started.
One of Aurenne's mine sites. (Source: Instagram)
FIFO worker told she was responsible for $200,000 issue
An investigation was conducted into the incident, and it wasn't until a week later that the worker received a message from her employer about their findings.
"You did not take due diligence to ensure you had the right paperwork," she was told.
"Instead of escalating, you assumed there was a mistake on the PSI board and proceeded.
"On the same shift, you did not properly execute the duties of your role and failed to take control of the mining activity, in not recognising that the level the excavator operator was working did not match your flitch plans, and further, he had commenced digging before you had clear communication with him."
Corless-Crane responded to the allegations and blamed the issue on the paperwork she received from the day shift crew, which "contained inaccuracies" that she wasn't aware of.
"I rely on the paperwork provided by my crew. When I arrived at Cascade to inspect the ore, I found only a low-grade block that had already been exposed, with the block number marked on the ground matching the number on my map," she said.
She added that being on night shift meant there was no supervisor around to ask, and that this responsibility shouldn't rest on her as the "least experienced member of my department".
Corless-Crane was eventually sacked on January 22.
FIFO worker takes sacking to Fair Work Commission
She launched an unfair dismissal case and claimed to the FWC that she had struggled to find employment in similar positions since.
As a single mother, she had found it difficult to find time to complete all the required medical tests and training. She submitted that if she didn't find a job by June, she was at risk of losing her home.
While she previously worked as a hairdresser and DJ, she said the income from those jobs wouldn't be enough to cover her expenses.
The FWC found the FIFO worker's day shift colleagues included "more senior, more qualified and more experienced employees" who "failed to notice that the handover documentation they received and relied on in the course of their shift, then handed over to Corless-Crane, did not contain a map for the area to be mined".
The Commission concluded that Corless-Crane "was not responsible" for the loss of the gold, and the original error was started by "people far more qualified" than her.
"The opportunity to identify the error earlier was missed by the excavator operators and Geology Team members operating during daylight hours with far better visibility and more experience than Ms Corless-Crane," it said.
"Ms Corless-Crane was the last line of defence in a chain of successive failures of systems and employees. Each of those failures contributed to the loss of the ore.
"Based on the evidence before me, and the submissions of the parties, for the reasons above, I find that a valid reasondid not exist for Ms Corless-Crane’s dismissal."
The FWC also noted none of the more senior colleagues were dismissed over the issue.
Several weren't even subjected to disciplinary action, coaching or investigation, and one who was "ultimately responsible for the loss of all the ore" was only given a written warning.
