Mine safety under cloud

Two serious workplace accidents in Port Hedland last week have highlighted mine safety concerns, with only one Pilbara-based mine safety inspector and an alleged culture of fear stopping workers voicing their worries.

A contractor at Fortescue Metals Group’s Port Hedland facility reportedly lost one leg and had his other leg crushed after a hydraulic ram failed on Friday.

On Thursday, 27-year-old Jordan Marriott-Statham, a contractor at BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Finucane Island port operations, was crushed to death when a crane collapsed shortly after midnight.

“Workers are saying things but they’re not putting their names to their comments because they are worried about what is going to happen to them,” industry veteran George Daccache said.

“That’s how people get injured, they’re too afraid to speak up.”

Mr Daccache said workers needed someone trusted on the ground who they could contact to voice their concerns.

Neither Port Hedland or Newman had a locally based inspector, compared with 14 in the Goldfields.

Mr Daccache was turned down when he applied to be a mines inspector, though he was a safety representative with 36 years’ experience in the iron ore industry.

“They keep saying they can’t afford housing, but I reiterate, I’ve got a house,” he said.

Earlier this month shadow mines minister Jon Ford said the State Government would have blood on its hands if it continued to neglect basing permanent mine safety inspectors in the Pilbara.

A Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union spokesman said unions should be given greater access to sites in order to help prevent workplace accidents.

Mines Minister Norman Moore said the Department of Mines and Petroleum had recently employed 22 additional staff who would be trained and appointed as safety inspectors.

But Mr Daccache criticised the move to bring in inspectors from other areas, saying they would lack the inside experience and the affinity with workers.

“You can employ, you can train but if you haven’t been there, worked in it and smelt it and felt the experience of your workmates dying, you really don’t know,” he said.

“You need somebody local, somebody that the workers can trust who is only five minutes or five hours away, not a few days away. At least have a meeting with the people in the Pilbara who are interested.”

In Parliament last week it was revealed BHP Billiton’s Yeelirrie uranium project had just one site visit from a Perth-based DMP’s resources safety division officer since it was reactivated in 2008.

Mr Moore said he would make a decision about inspector placement after more consultation with the department and industry.

“Not withstanding this operational strategy, I have recently sought advice from the department with a view to locating safety inspectors in regional centres, regardless of the costs associated with such a move,” he said.