The latest injury to an iron ore worker in Western Australia shows that BHP Billiton is not doing enough to improve its safety levels, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Western Australia secretary Gary Wood told MINING DAILY.
“Our position is very clear that BHP has got it horribly wrong,” Wood said.
All rail activity was suspended yesterday at BHP Billiton’s Nelson’s Point site in WA after the company confirmed a “safety incident” had taken place.
“The individual was treated at site and taken to hospital for observation. At this stage his injuries appear minor,” BHP told MINING DAILY.
The latest accident comes after a spate of recent safety incidents for BHP, with five deaths in the past eight months at BHP iron ore operations in the WA.
The high number of deaths on BHP worksites this month prompted WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore to meet with company officials to discuss the problem.
“There have been five fatalities this financial year at sites operated by BHP Billiton, and the State Government will not stand by and let this state of affairs continue,” Moore said at the time.
After these discussions Moore ordered BHP to stop work on 12 worksites that had been issued with breach of practice notices, saying that the stop work notices will be issued to any site that breaches work practices or work place conditions that may constitute a hazard to workers.
At the same time BHP Billiton Iron Ore president Ian Ashby apologised to all of those who had been affected by the accidents.
“We are deeply saddened by the deaths within our Western Australia Iron Ore business and we are doing everything we can to identify the causes and take action to prevent further tragedies,” Ashby said.
According to Wood, the fundamental problem lies with the way in which BHP and Moore have approached the issue of minesite safety.
“They (BHP) are taking a punitive approach to dealing with safety issues rather than encouraging people to report potential or serious incidents without the fear of reprisal,” he said.
Wood said those who will be directly affected by unsafe work practices need to be more involved.
“We call on the Minister to have an independent body to conduct what we call a ‘perception’ survey from the bottom up and get to the grass roots of where the problems lie,” he said.
“This will tell them that BHP is developing policies and procedures purely from a legal perspective to ensure that they are covered in the case of serious injury or fatality rather than involving the people at the bottom in the planning required that will see the safest culture possible.”
While it has been BHP that has seen fatalities of late, they are not the only mining company in WA with safety concerns, Wood said.
“The next cab off the rank where we have great concerns is the Fortescue Metals operation,” he said.
“We’re getting more and more frequent calls from people on the job there expressing their concerns about the safety at that sight.”
Wood and the CFMEU believe that measures currently undertaken should never have had to be put forward.
“The minister’s position last week saying that they will shut WA sites down if there is an incident or if it is deemed to be unsafe, that shouldn’t need to be said,” he said.