Glencore Xstrata Cuts 321 Jobs at Collinsville Coal Mine

Reuters reported that yesterday Thiess, a unit of Leighton Holdings Ltd. (ASX:LEI), laid off over 300 workers at Glencore Xstrata plc’s (LSE:GLEN) Australia-based Collinsville coal mine. Glenstrata has said it may hire back some employees in the process of overhauling operations at the site.

As quoted in the market news:

Thiess, a unit of Leighton Holdings, said it gave pink slips to 321 workers at the mine on Wednesday. The mine currently has a workforce of about 420, of which 400 are Thiess employees, according to Glencore.

Key in determining whether or not workers will be re-hired is whether or not they agree to new terms of employment under Glencore.

The mine, in operation for around 100 years, has been losing “substantial” amounts of money for the last 18 months, Derosa said, adding that until there is an agreement with the employees’ union Glencore will not be able to give specific numbers on how many people it will employ going forward.

Glencore, then Xstrata, announced in February that it would take over the mine’s operations from Thiess in August. Glencore acquired miner Xstrata in May.

Click here to read the full Reuters report.