Outsourced mine employees are more unlikely to speak up when something is not right because they are concerned about potential repercussions, an advocate said.
The Queensland parliamentary inquiry into coal mining industry safety recently heard some workers under report occupational incidents due to fear of reprisal.
The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) revealed the number of contract and labour hire fatalities significantly differs to those involving directly employed staff. The union confirmed 22 Queensland coal mine workers died since the year 2002. More than 72 per cent of these fatalities involved contractors while the remainder affected permanent employees.
Outsourced personnel have complained about lower wages and unstable work arrangements, leaving them vulnerable to totally losing income after voicing concerns.
“Contract or labour hire employees, whether they are permanent or casual, are vulnerable to reprisal for stopping the job for safety reasons – or even for simply raising safety issues,” MEU state industry safety and health representative Stephen Watts said according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“There has been over 150 reprisal complaints with not one prosecution. It is pretty obvious that the system [gives] disincentives [for] reporting safety issues.”
The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) separately told the inquiry that Resources Safety and Health Queensland offers a telephone service to anonymously report safety incidents.
“There should be no reluctance for a miner to lodge a complaint anonymously. If the system is not working to the absolute optimum let us [employers] work out what we can do to make it better,” QRC CEO Ian Macfarlane said according to the broadcaster.
Neither MEU nor BHP were aware of this hotline and knew how to access it.
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As an old retired mineworker this article is nothing new, this has been going on since the 70s and 80s. I was lucky enough to be an underground coal miner from 81 to 88, in that time I worked at Rhonnda 5 in Ipswich and also Moura no 2 mine. I say lucky because my backside is still in one piece. The Moura situation was of the most archaic machinery underground, the equipment was stone age and compressed air wasnt put down the pit till dust samples were taken. (people retiring at 55 expiring at 56!!). problem was that the whole place was a second job for farmers, lizard chasers, railway workers, cowboys and everything in between.Fact was that when number four blew they left the boys in number two below number four to carry on working till end of the shift without saying anything. Then after the events at number four we had to return and repair seals in number two. Pay was not exceedingly good, and the only reason the underground mine was there was to take advantage of a twenty five dollar a tonne rail freight subsidy given by the Qld Government. The whole mine was supposedly a five year pit and ended up 25/30 year pit. The training at the mine was non existent , they used to let people drive continuous mining machine, bash the tail into the rib and then wonder when pieces fell out killing people! The Central Queensland situation was a far cry from Rhonnda. The Rhonnda people were all very skilled people especially the deputies. They had a firm grip on the running of the mine. Not so Moura! anyhow when I heard that they were only running contractors I could not believe it, in one fell swoop the mine owners abrogated any concern for the workforce by getting hire labour in. Hire labour treated as second class citizens!!