- Low salary.
- No pay scale.
- Extremely repetitive/tedious work that comes down to counting coal elements using microscopes.
- Very long hours on a microscope. Expected to do all day microscopy work which is unsustainable/uncomfortable.
- Very high staff turnover.
- Poor management culture that values only revenue/productivity.
- Low levels of autonomy - all the work is allocated on the day by management.
- Low job satisfaction. click, click, click, click.... as fast as you can. That's it!
- High risk of repetitive stress injury. All the day you sit down and click to count stuff on the screen using a microscope. This is 80% of the work available.
- Outdated equipment. Two of the microscopes are from the 1970's with very poor ergonomics/visuals. These microscopes are damaged and require replacement. For example, on one microscope the coarse focus is broken and requires extreme force to use. On another microscope the stepping system that moves the sample on a fixed manner to allow precise counting is broken. These are 2 out of 3 microscopes used for the daily workload.
- High KPI that does not take into account fatigue/stress or ineffective IT systems.
- Serious issues with the Laboratory information management system.
- Poor communication from management.
- Poor training due to high staff turnover and/or poor management decision making.
- High risk of being sent to parent site at Riverview (BNE) to work as a Coal Tester when work slows down. A labour intensive position to shove coal into ovens at 1000c. This is not part of the job description.
