News

Union confident about health and safety systems at Huntly coalmine

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1300

The union representing miners at Solid Energy's Huntly East operation, the EPMU, is confident there are good systems in place for health and safety management at the underground coalmine.

Solid Energy is holding a public meeting in Huntly this afternoon to outline what is happening at the mine in response to concerns about possible health and safety breaches involving gas levels. An EPMU official and union members will also be attending the meeting.

"We're not aware of any complaints of the order of a Pike River-like health and safety situation at Huntly East," says Ged O'Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary. "We are aware of a recent event that has led to an investigation by Solid Energy and the Department of Labour."

The EPMU is strongly advocating for better mine safety and stronger regulation in the wake of the 2010 Pike River coalmine disaster in which 29 miners were killed.

"We are confident that Solid Energy is not a Pike operation and there's a much higher level of accountability and responsibility because it is a state owned enterprise," says O'Connell. "There's also a large amount of across-the-board experience and knowledge of underground coal mining at Huntly, unlike Pike River where there was very little. However, one pressure point that's developing is the loss of experienced miners to Australia who are attracted by better pay and conditions."

O'Connell says the EPMU is recognised by Solid Energy as playing an integral role in mine safety at Huntly and has strong network of union health and safety representatives, delegates and officials working with the company to constantly monitor and improve health and safety systems.

"However, while we have a good level of engagement with Solid Energy we are still advocating at the national level for a world's best practice approach to underground mining safety where we'd have the three-legged stool of excellent regulations, a highly competent and effective government inspectorate and worker-elected mine check inspectors," says O'Connell.

EPMU involvement in Government funded health and safety initiative for safe Canterbury rebuild

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +1300

Building effective health and safety systems for workers involved in the rebuild of Christchurch is a key objective for the country's largest private sector union, the EPMU, which is participating in a government funded health and safety initiative announced today.

The Government is providing $300,000 from the Employment Relations Education Contestable Fund for health and safety initiatives designed to ensure a safe rebuild of Canterbury.

As a major union representing workers in the construction sector, the EPMU will be engaging with construction companies, business groups, health and safety training providers, other unions and government agencies to ensure there are integrated and effective health and safety systems in place for the rebuild.

"This initiative provides a unique opportunity for the rebuild of Christchurch to have a highly co-ordinated and integrated approach to health and safety," says Ged O'Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary. "We are particularly pleased to see Government support for health and safety representative training and support - and the opportunity this provides for the development of a strong worker voice in the drive to achieve high standards of health and safety on all jobs."

Mr O'Connell says the key target groups for the health and safety re-build initiative are the sub-contracting companies who are working in residential, commercial and infrastructure reconstruction.

Good week for miners

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +1200

EPMU welcomes announcements made this week that will have a significant impact on health and safety in the mining industry.

Ged O'Connell, Assistant National Secretary of the EMPU said today "it's been a good week for miners, on the heels of the Government's announcement of a revived mines health and safety inspectorate, we are pleased to hear the Labour Party policy released today of a comprehensive health and safety agenda that would re-introduce employee elected health and safety inspectors."

"The check inspectors, reinforced with a strong regulatory framework based on the mining regulations in Queensland, will create much a safer work environment for our miners," said Ged O'Connell.

Friends and workmates farewell engineer in style

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +1200

Friends and workmates farewelled EPMU member Miles Hunter at a funeral service at Woodbourne air base near Blenheim last week (12 August). More than 250 people attended, many riding motorcycles. Hunter was a keen motorcycle enthusiast.

The 51-year old engineer was killed earlier in the week while testing a jet engine on a rig at Safe Air's facility at the air base. Safe Air is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air New Zealand.

EPMU national secretary Bill Newson described Hunter as ‘highly regarded and much liked.'

The union has expressed its condolences to the member's family and colleagues. Union officials continue to support members and engage with management at Safe Air through this difficult time.

Local EPMU organiser George Hollinsworth has been working with members, management, Department of Labour, police and other investigators looking into what caused the tragic accident.

‘Union officials are trained to provide support for members in these situations,' says Hollinsworth. ‘Members should feel free to contact me or the Union Support Centre if they have any questions about their work or the nature of the investigation as it rolls out.'

Fatal accident at SafeAir in Blenheim

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +1200

An engineer has been killed this morning at an accident at SafeAir in Blenheim. SafeAir is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air New Zealand.

The union is able to confirm that the deceased man was a member of the EPMU. No other details will be available from the union until the man has been named.

The union expresses its condolences to the member's family and colleagues. Union officials are working to support members and management at SafeAir at this difficult time.

The union will be supporting occupational health and safety, police and other investigators into the tragic accident.

For further information contact
EPMU National Secretary Bill Newson 027 5384 246
EPMU Organiser George Hollinsworth 027 6751 338

Union calls for immediate strengthening of mines inspectorate

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +1200

The EPMU is calling for an immediate strengthening of the mines inspectorate, without waiting for the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Pike River tragedy to issue its final report. EPMU special legal counsel Andrew Little says the inquiry has heard enough about safety problems at Pike River to act now.

‘It's become quite clear that there were safety risks at Pike River, and that these would have been exposed if a more rigorous system of safety checks, equipment and procedures had been in place,' says Little.

Solid Energy boss Don Elder has backed the union's call to increase the number of mining inspectors, following his admission at the Royal Commission of Inquiry that there had been four fires in the Spring Creek mine in the past two months.

‘There were four ignition incidents in eight weeks, which is of serious concern even in a mine such as Spring Creek with comparatively good safety procedures,' Little told the commission.

‘In two of the incidents no inspector had attended the site,' said Little. ‘We're putting this issue in front of the commission to highlight problems with resourcing and quality of the current inspectorate.'

‘There is nothing to stop the Government reinstating a dedicated mines inspectorate and the post of chief mines inspector right now.'

Elder says that his company would support a strengthened mine inspectorate regime as a useful step towards improved safety across the industry. He says that his company already exceeds regulatory and safety standards.

Little says that Solid Energy has properly logged the incidents and has a good reporting culture.

Mines safety standards seen as 'shocking' by Australians

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +1200

Australians are shocked at the gap between mines safety standards in Australia and New Zealand. Mine workers and their families have slammed safety standards as lax and described the New Zealand government as clueless over mines safety.

Australian miner Peter Satler told TVNZ's Sunday programme (12 June) that working in the Pike River coalmine was ‘an eye-opener for me, it was like going back in time really.'

Satler was a supervisor at Pike River mine until July 2009, when he left because of safety concerns. ‘There were quite a few things I saw there that sort of shocked me,' Satler said, citing particular concerns around miners starting fans in the presence of highly explosive methane gas.

In the Moranbah mine in Queensland where Slater now works, miners can't touch anything electrical unless they're qualified. In Australia, only statutory officials of the colliery can start an auxiliary fan.

Slater said that when he raised his concerns with management, he was told ‘you're not in Australia, you're in New Zealand.'

Slater also expressed concerns that gas monitoring in the mine did not include a tube bundling system that measures trends in the gases present in the mine. In Queensland it is compulsory by law to have a tube bundling system installed.

‘The whole New Zealand legislation surprised me really,' he said.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says that Queensland's regulations are seen as ‘virtually best practice' and that New Zealand has a ‘moral obligation' to apply them here with immediate effect.

Following on from Prime Minister John Key's admission to Australian media (21 June) that the Pike River coalmine would have been ‘illegal' in New Zealand, the union believes that the way is clear to change the laws regarding mine construction and safety in New Zealand.

Joanne Ufer, the mother of Josh Ufern, one of two Australians to die in the Pike River mine disaster, was reported on the same day in the National Business Review as saying she was surprised to hear Key's comments on mine safety.

‘If anything at all comes out of this, it should be a change in the safety standards,' she told the paper.

International safety consultant and New Zealander Dave Feikert agrees. He told TVNZ that if there had been a proper functioning mines inspectorate with a union inspectorate in place, the Pike River mine disaster would not have happened.

Carol Rose, mother of dead miner Stuart Mudge, told Radio New Zealand that Key's statements showed the New Zealand government was ‘clueless' over mines safety.

She said New Zealand miners had gone to work in Australia and found much higher standards in place. She also criticised the dismantling of a mines safety inspectorate system, which she claimed could have helped prevent the Pike River explosions.

‘Not only clueless but they actually dismantled the very system that was there to protect those workers,' Rose was reported as saying. ‘And that was just to save a few measly bucks. And now look at the cost incurred... for them being so lax.'

The EPMU, the union representing mine workers in New Zealand, has been saying the same thing for some time. ‘The overarching problem is that this is an industry that is working to a code of standards that isn't mandatory and under an inspectorate that simply isn't capable of doing its job with the resources that it's got,' says Little.

‘You've only got to do a rough and ready comparison with Australian mining regulations to know that we do things here that simply wouldn't be tolerated in Australia.'

‘We don't want a repeat, we don't want anybody else being put at risk.'

Government inaction on mines safety goes back decades

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +1200

The government must take action now on improving underground mine safety rather than waiting for the Royal Commission on Pike River, the EPMU says.

Prime Minister John Key told Australian media that the Pike River mine would have been illegal in Australia and that New Zealand mining laws would change in light of the disaster. This followed recent publicity highlighting the differences in mining safety standards in the two countries.

‘There is ample evidence that safety standards here are below par, even the government has accepted that and they should do something now,' assistant national secretary Ged O'Connell says.

‘The Prime Minister's comments have attracted a lot of attention here and in Australia and he has a moral obligation to act.'

In response to Green MP Kevin Hague in Parliament (22 June), the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson has signalled that the National government is not prepared to match safety standards that already apply across the Tasman. The government wants to leave workers' safety in the hands of the employers, despite the tragic failure of this policy at Pike River.

Hague says that while National was dismantling the structure and regulations that maximised underground safety during the 1990s, they were being repeatedly warned by experts that this would cost lives and paid those warnings no heed.

‘In 1992 they did away with the check inspectors - effectively one leg of a 3-legged stool - and in 1998 they sawed off more than half of one of the other legs by closing down the Mines Inspectorate.'

‘This was coupled with a change to regulations. The Health and Safety in Employment Act in 1992 repealed the strict and mandatory safety rules for underground mining in the Coal Mines Act 1979 and replaced them with nothing, leaving underground mining largely unregulated.'

Hague says that no new regulations were introduced until 1999, but the new rules incorporated a fundamentally different approach. He points out that instead of being mandatory and universal, the new regulations generally contained a qualifier ‘where practicable'. This effectively allows the mining companies and their management to make decisions on what might be practical or affordable for particular mines.

‘The government has had repeated opportunities to do something but has turned them all down,' says Hague. ‘Now they say they will wait for the findings of the Royal Commission before doing anything - 2013 at the earliest. Could it be they would prefer to not have their inaction on mine safety connected with the Pike 29 before the General Election?'

Key should act now on mine safety, says union

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +1200

The Government's admission that New Zealand's mine safety standards are below par means it should act now, not wait until the Royal Commission has finished its work, says EPMU national secretary Andrew Little.

The Prime Minister John Key has told Australian media that there will be changes to mining safety laws, following the Pike River coalmine disaster where 29 men died.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Key said that the Pike River mine, which was a single-entry uphill mine, ‘couldn't have been constructed in Australia' because it would have been ‘illegal'.

‘There will be changes in New Zealand,' he said.

The EPMU, the union representing mine workers in New Zealand, welcomes the Prime Minister's statement. ‘Now we know that the government has identified problems with safety standards, we can act now to fix them,' says Little. ‘We don't need to wait for the Royal Commission's decision. And we can spare the families further pain and suffering.'

‘There is plenty of international evidence and expertise available to start making changes to mine safety regulations now.'

The EPMU has consistently highlighted problems with mining safety regulations and practice in New Zealand. Independent audits on underground mine safety released last month by the Department of Labour showed serious deficiencies in health and safety systems in New Zealand's underground coal mines.

Kiwi Steel case a wake-up call to employers

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +1200

Unreported workplace accidents at Kiwi Steel have cost the company a hefty $237,500. One worker lost part of his finger in a guillotine, another had his foot broken by a piece of falling steel, and two others received serious injuries while using a mini-slitter.

‘This is one of the most significant fines handed out for a non-fatality in New Zealand, and will serve as a wake-up call to employers' says EPMU health and safety officer Fritz Drissner.

Kiwi Steel must also pay $16,500 in reparation to injured workers and $87,500 in fines for failing to guard machines adequately in the workplace. The Department of Labour says that hundreds of people are injured while using machinery that is not adequately guarded.

‘There's an industry practice of paying managers bonuses if their departments have no reports of accidents,' says Drissner. ‘This leads to non-reporting of accidents and non-reporting of near-misses.'

‘The union has been concerned about this lack of safety culture in the workplace for some time. Workers are discouraged to report incidents by their managers because it is directly linked to their monetary bonus. The result is a culture of fear and intimidation around reporting of injuries.'

In the last six months, 13 companies, including Kiwi Steel, have been fined almost half a million dollars for machine guarding failures.