More Australian coalminers will be rewarded for years of backbreaking work after a two and half year long union struggle for new portable long service leave laws.

The CFMEU Mining and Energy union said that under amendments to the Coal Mining Industry Act which were passed by the Australian Senate in Canberra up to 2,000 more coalminers will gain the right to portable long service leave.

Contractors and labor hire workers in the black coal industry are among the biggest winners under the new laws, gaining the right to portable long service leave for the very first time.

From the January 1st 2010 contractors and labor hire workers will be able to legally accrue portable long service leave.

Portable long service leave has been a long-held right in the Australian black coal industry, with permanent workers first winning the entitlement in 1949.

Coalminers must work in the industry for at least eight year before they are entitled to thirteen weeks long service leave.

Mr Andrew Vickers general secretary of CFMEU Mining and Energy union said the new long service leave laws were a huge victory for Australian coalminers. He said that “These new laws mean that some coalminers will for the very first time be recognized for years of hard work in one of Australia’s most dangerous industries. It’s a huge victory for Australian coalminers, their families and their union who have fought long and hard for these new laws.”

Mr Vickers also said that the new laws guarantee the future of portable long service leave for all Australian coalminers in the black coal mining industry. He added that “Portable long service leave is a right that coalminers and their families have had for more than fifty years and hopefully these new laws will mean it is a right that coalminers and their families will have for another fifty years.”