Miner’s death brings calls for safety reform

And the Australian Workers Union has called for a parliamentary inquiry into mine safety following the announcement of the Department of Mines & Petroleum that it is investigating the accident.
It was the fourth fatality in the industry in Western Australia this year and the eighth in the past 14 months.
WA’s director of mine safety Simon Ridge has been reported saying that the Department of Mines & Petroleum’s budget did not cater for extra safety inspectors for 2009.
Ridge reportedly said the Department’s ability is limited by its manpower and it has been cutting corners by understaffing areas such as administration so it could reallocate money to boost safety inspector numbers.
This most recent death highlights the urgent need to reform the regulation of safety in the WA mining industry, according to the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME).
CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith said that in the short-term, the number of workplace safety inspectors may need to be increased.
“Beyond that, our view is that substantial change needs to be made to the way safety is regulated in the State’s mining sector.
“The current approach to safely regulation is focused on compliance with detailed rules and regulations. While this approach may have worked well in the past, it is now increasingly irrelevant to modern mining operations, where there are typically many hazards that are not covered by regulations.
“The industry’s view is therefore that we need to move to a risk management regime, which would require mining operators to demonstrate they understand the hazards and risks at their workplace, and have implemented controls to eliminate or at the very least manage those risks,” Howard-Smith said.
These reforms would require a significantly enhanced mine safety inspectorate with a range of different qualifications.
Howard-Smith said the CME’s position on reforming mine safety was based on wide consultation with industry, Government and unions, and was also in line with several major industry inquiries and reports conducted over recent years.
At the Diggers and Dealers conference on August 5th, BHP Billiton’s iron ore chief, Ian Ashby admitted that the company’s safety performance was “abysmal” with five separate deaths in 10 months across the division in the past year.
“It clearly has had a tremendous impact on everyone in the organisation, me included,” Ashby reportedly said.
“We’ve needed to challenge all our programs, all our systems, all our behaviours, to implement solutions to these tragic events.”
Ashby also said there was an element of complacency and arrogance in Australian and Pilbara workers around safety.
He said BHP had overhauled the interaction of light and heavy vehicles on its mines and strengthened its fatigue management by introducing staff swipe cards which notify supervisors of worker overtime.
BHP had also reduced the number of people with access to its sites, redefined expectations of contractors and is moving to bring its railways under the Rail Safety Act from the Mines Safety and Inspection Act.
The CEOs of 20 of Queensland’s biggest minerals and energy companies are also being challenged on safety, at the Queensland Resources Council’s annual safety leadership event being held on August 13th.
In the lead up to this year’s forum, participants were given the task of personally collecting statements from employees in non-leadership roles regarding their perceptions of the organisation’s health and safety management.
As well as revealing survey findings, the QRC forum will focus on how this data can be used to analyse an organisation’s safety performance and uncover what actions are required to deliver sustainable change.
Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Michael Roche says the forum will provide valuable insight into what is working and what can be improved in the number one priority area for QRC member companies.
“Our annual CEO safety day is about bringing the company bosses together to not only learn from each other but also to step them outside their comfort zones and do some digging for themselves.
“Despite a vastly improved safety record in Queensland over the past decade, one fatality is one too many and we simply can’t afford to take our eye off the ball for a moment,” he said.