Qld: Mine working hours compromise safety

AAP General News (Australia)
04-26-2001
Qld: Mine working hours compromise safety

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, April 26 AAP - Longer shifts and the increased use of contractors was compromising
mine safety across Australia, a report claims.

A case study in a report commissioned by the Queensland Department of Industrial Relations
released today said export pressures and industrial relations reforms had contributed
to a move towards 12-hour or longer shifts and 24-hour operations.

"Serious safety implications emerge for a workforce operating in a highly hazardous
environment faced with longer shifts in a more compressed work schedule," the report said.

The report called for mines and unions to look at introducing fatigue testing, a study
into the impact of working time changes on families and the community and the extension
of working time standards to contractors.

The report said Queensland miners had a comparatively long working week, with only
15 per cent of miners working shifts of eight hours or less.

It said half of all mine sites had standard shifts of 12 hours or more.

Eighty-eight per cent of Queensland production miners had average working weeks of
more than 40 hours.

But this was less dramatic than in Western Australia, where no mines reported eight-hour
shifts and 93 per cent of production miners had average working weeks of more than 40
hours.

Many mines were moving towards contractors with 15 per cent of mines across Australia
solely employing contractors for production and 58 per cent employing at least 10 production
contractors.

"A contractor may work simultaneously for two or more mines which have incompatible
shift regimes," the report said.

"The contractor is faced with the temptation of reducing the amount of recuperative
time between shifts. This could seriously compromise safety standards at a mine site,
because the contractor may be suffering the effects of fatigue."

Queensland Mining Council executive director Michael Pinnock said there was no evidence
to suggest 12-hour shifts compromised safety.

Mr Pinnock said a recent study by the council had shown workers preferred 12-hour shifts
and that there was no measurable impact on safety.

But he said more information was needed on why the longer shifts were safer.

Mr Pinnock said mining companies were concerned about contractors having short spells
between jobs and coming to work tired from travelling long distances.

He said mines had introduced swipe cards and log books but an industry-wide approach was needed.

AAP pjo/jhm/ns/bwl

KEYWORD: HOURS MINING

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