Workforce management
Safety reset spurs return to top priority NEARLY 50,000 WORKERS HAVE BEEN THROUGH QUEENSLAND’S SAFETY RESET FOLLOWING A STRING OF TRAGIC MINE AND QUARRY INCIDENTS IN THE STATE. SAFE TO WORK WRITES.
Break out session at the Grosvenor mine during safety reset.
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ueensland’s first ever safety reset has reached more than 98 per cent of the state’s mine and quarry workers. State Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Anthony Lynham launched the reset last July in response to six fatalities in Queensland over a 12-month period. This decision was widely backed by mining and services companies, which immediately worked with government and industry bodies to implement the plan. Anglo American, one of Queensland’s leading employers, has unsurprisingly taken the reset seriously, given the company’s extensive involvement and government
discussions around safety in the state. The size of Anglo American’s workforce and operations clearly doesn’t deter the met coal giant. Its entire 5400-strong workforce has taken part in the reset by completing over 50 sessions across its sites. “Despite significant improvements, we still have not been able to eliminate fatalities from our industry,” Anglo American metallurgical coal business chief executive Tyler Mitchelson tells Safe to Work. “This is something we are focussed on every hour of every day, and at every level of our business.” With Anglo American senior leadership teams leading the sessions at its mine sites, the company’s safety reset focussed on an end of
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fatalities (EOF) framework. This is Anglo American’s groundwork for addressing critical safety risks, underpinned by best practice knowledge and safety innovations. Anglo American’s understanding of best practice mining safety reflects its decision to sponsor the 2019 Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference. The conference attracted around 1000 industry members from across government, unions, mining and quarry companies and suppliers to discuss best practice safety. “Our safety resets were comprehensive, and addressed safety at an industry, company and site level,” Mitchelson says. “The sessions were a good
