Bonus system overshadows safety, inquiry told

Mine bonuses were an incentive to cut as much coal as possible, and an incentive to cut corners, an Oaky North coal mine fitter has told a safety inquiry. Site Safety and Health Representative (SSHR) and CFMEU member of 40 years Joe Barber was among a raft of people from that mine to provide evidence to the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry this week. In his written statement to the inquiry, Mr Barber said he believed the bonus structures encourage people to not report safety incidents orinjuries and to take shortcuts. "The bonus and number of metres achieved is always written on the noticeboard. By contrast HPIs and safety matters never are," he said in that statement. Mr Barber's statement also highlighted the need for unannounced inspections by the Mines Inspectorate and ISHRs in addition to those announced beforehand . "Every single time there was a notification provided to the mine regarding an upcoming inspection, there would always be a frantic clean-up around the mine," he said. "In my view inspections would be much more effective if there was an ability for members of the Inspectorate or ISHRs (Industry Safety and Health Representatives) to arrive for an inspection on an unannounced basis. "They would then see what was really going on at the mine and not just want the management wants them to see." But under questioning by Resources Safety and Health Queensland barrister Deborah Holliday he was made aware of an unannounced inspection in his presence in October. "In this case, you may well have been notified, but you would have been notified that morning, I suggest, by the mine that the inspectorate had arrived?"Mr Barber: "More than likely, yes, yes." Little regard for the regulations Despite all the safety communications from people like himself and management, Mr Barber said that in his experience coal mine workers - regardless of whether they were labour hire, contractors or permanent employees - did not really care about the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act or the regulations. "Many labour hire workers don't even know about the CMSH Act or the regulations and it just demonstrates that there is a lack of education coming from the labour hire companies," he said in his written statement to the inquiry. "The same can be said with some of the permanent workforce and it is notfrom lack of trying by management to educate people, but at the end of the day you can do as much training as you want to, but that does not guarantee compliance." Under questioning this week he described this lack of awareness as a big problem. "... you can train people. You know, you can give them as much training as you want to, but they've got to - it is a problem," he said. "We've got such a big workforce, and the push to get the coal out, you know, like, 'She'll be right, mate. Let's just keep going'." He told the court he would like to see the workforce receive more active training in the regulations and site procedures. "For example, I've mentioned in my affidavit about an electrician who took it on himself to turn a fan off in the section in a development panel without the ERZ controller being there," he said. "You can't do that, there's that much gas in there. And he turned the fan off and turned it back on without the ERZ - he got hauled over the coals for it, and I ended up - he got spoken to by the engineer and the inspector at the time, and I heard him talking later - I witnessed him talking to someone that he didn't really think that he'd done anything wrong. "So then I pulled the extraction out of the regs and took it to him and showed him his obligations and said that if I ever found him doing that again, I would personally take him to the SSE." He agreed that no matter how much training the company gave them, some people just would not comply. In his written statement Mr Barber indicated he had always found site senior executives (SSEs) approachable and responsive to issues he raised as an SSHR, but lower level managers varied in their attitudes. He stated he had personally never heard of anybody being sacked for reporting a safety issue, however he had seen people hassled for it. "The people that generally hassled workers that report safety issues were the lower level managers. I have never seen an SSE hassle anyone who had raised concerns about safety," he said.

Bonus system overshadows safety, inquiry told

Industry Queensland

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