WHEN mining and construction chief executives talk about workplace safety, many people struggle to stifle a yawn. But it is very different on the rare occasion when they hear about a serious accident.
Then it hits the news, upsets the unions, disrupts the workplace, and could result in permanent injury or death, which is why chief executives continue to focus on workplace safety.
The focus on workplace safety was illustrated earlier this year when US oil and gas giant Chevron took the unusual step of inviting chief executives and country managers from 26 contractors working on its Gorgon project to attend a safety summit on Barrow Island.
The aim was to ensure that every contractor properly understood the issue.
One of those contractors, Irish company Kentz, followed up with its own group safety conference, which brought a new collaborative approach to the Australian market.
“This was a contractor inviting clients and other contractors as well,” Kentz country manager Brian Kelly said.
“That was unique, it hasn’t been done before in Australia.”
The participants included contractors Clough, KBR, Thiess, CB&I, Chiyoda and Fluor, project developers Chevron, Woodside, Rio Tinto and QGC, along with a union representative and behavioural experts.
One point that was generally agreed was that Australian workers have both a high perception of risk and a high tolerance of risk.
Mr Kelly recounted the experience of one speaker, who said contractors had lost work if they didn’t have the right commitment to safety.
“One point he made was that the CEO of a certain company didn’t have a strong safety culture and that made him uneasy, that swayed his decision on awarding a contract a number of years ago,” Mr Kelly said.
“He was saying that if the CEO doesn’t have a strong safety culture there’s a good chance the rest of the organisation doesn’t have it.”
Together, the conference participants developed a package that highlighted best practice across eight areas, including leadership, communication, recognition and family promotion.
“We want to share this with everybody,” Mr Kelly said.
Decmil Australia, which participated in the Kentz conference, was one of the winners at this year’s National Safety Awards of Excellence, after implementing a new workplace safety system in 2010.
Since then, the total injury rate on its construction sites has dropped from 10 per million hours worked to 3.67 per million hours worked.
“It’s not just one tiling,” managing director Ray Sputore told WA Business News.
“There are six components to our Shield program, and they are all focused on driving behaviours.”
Mr Sputore said the elements of a successful program included committed leadership, talented supervisors, good training and an engaged workforce.
“Each company has a different approach to achieving engagement,” he said.
Another winner with a strong Western Australian connection was contracting joint venture Sinclair Knight Merz, Balfour Beatty, and UGL.
Their client, Rio Tinto, halted work on the construction of electricity transmission towers after raising concerns about the risks facing riggers.
The solution was a new system that included the use of temporary docking brackets to guide sections into place without the need for riggers to be under or near the suspended loads.
The improvement in workplace safety over the past decade is evidenced by state government data.
The ‘lost time injuries’ per million hours worked has reduced from 4.4 in 2002-03 to 2.42 in 2011-12.
Over the same period, fatal injury frequency rate lias reduced by about 81 per cent to 0.011 in 2011-12.
Byrnecut Australia managing director Steve Coughlan is disappointed that people doubt the commitment to workplace safety.
For mining contractors like Byrnecut, he said it made good business sense.
“I can guarantee that, from the hard school of business over nearly 40 years, good systems and good safety means good production, and therefore more profit,” Mr Coughlan said.
“Anyone who operates without accepting that premise is going to be out of business in a short time. It also means you sleep better at night.”
