Pit employee of little importance, do we hear? (5)
I believe the answer is:
miner
'pit employee' is the definition.
(someone who works down the pit)
'of little importance do we hear?' is the wordplay.
'of little importance' becomes 'minor' (minor can mean unimportant).
'do we hear?' shows a homophone (sound like).
'minor' sounds like 'MINER'.
(Other definitions for miner that I've seen before include "Digger for gold or coal, say" , "One works underground" , "Man of 49" , "Excavator" , "One sent down for work" .)