FEDERAL Resources and Water Minister Keith Pitt says research by the McKell Institute on labour-hire in the coal industry is "union propaganda posing as a report", and mine workers "should not be fooled by it".
Labor candidate for Hunter Dan Repacholi said the report - done for the Mining and Energy Union as reported in yesterday's Newcastle Herald - showed labour-hire stripping $250 million a year out of the region by paying labour-hire workers 30 per cent less than direct employees for the same work, regardless of what Mr Pitt said.
