The truth behind working in mining

The preliminary data for 2011–12 show there were 3365 successful workers’ compensation claims for serious injury or illness. Over the five years from 2007–08 to 2011–12, the Mining industry accounted for 2% of all serious workers’ compensation claims. On average there were 8 claims each day from employees who required one or more weeks off work because of work-related injury or disease. Figure 1 shows that the incidence rate of serious claims in the Mining industry has fallen 51% from 29.8 claims per 1000 employees in 2000–01 to 14.6 in 2010–11. This rate is slightly higher than the rate for all industries (12.7 claims per 1000 employees).

Here’s a stark figure: over a five-year period from 2007 to 2012, 36 mining workers died from work-related injuries. The total number of deaths equates to 3.84 fatalities per 100,000 workers, which is almost 70% higher than the national rate of 2.29.

During that time, there were 3,365 successful workers’ compensation claims for serious injury or illness, with the mining industry accounting for 2% of all serious workers’ compensation claims. On average, there were eight claims each day from employees who required one or more week off work because of work-related injury or disease.

Here’s a breakdown of the claims:

• Body stressing accounted for 34% of claims. Many of the claims were due to muscular stress while handling non-powered handtools, appliances and equipment.
• Falls, trips and slips accounted for 22% of claims, with more than half involving falling over objects on the ground, or slippery surfaces
• Being hit by moving objects accounted for 18% of claims – the most common cause being hit by metal objects such as bars, pipes, beams or by rocks, stones and boulders.

Our Closed Loop “Intelligent Journey Management Solution” was developed because of a real and immediate need to make workers in difficult environments safe. It provides:

• Deep diagnostics to help you quickly detect triage and identify issues with your traveller
• Rich user telemetry and deep application and environment
• Diagnostics that you need to gain visibility
• Detection of anomalous situations before they become an incident
• Breadth of data to quickly find the traveller, diagnose the problem and drill in to find the root cause
• Deep insights into traveller behaviour and performance

Although effective, current methods rely heavily on human intervention, which introduces an element of uncertainty. We believe that uncertainty is the arch enemy of secure and reliable safety systems. 

For workforce visibility, there are no other methods with the same level of accuracy, simplicity or functionality than Closed Loop System’s GPS. Our single goal is to work collaboratively with our clients to ensure success, with a truly “Intelligent Personnel Assistance and Safeguard System”, designed and developed in Western Australia.

WORKING REMOTELY OR IN ISOLATION

We often hear about working in remote or isolated locations, but what does this actually mean, and what are the risks involved?

According to the Comcare’s Guide to Remote or Isolated Work, remote or isolated work is defined as “work that is isolated from the assistance of other people because of the location, time or nature of the work being done”.

Isolated work involves work activities done in an isolated, on or off site, either during or outside normal working hours.

Remote work involves work activities undertaken at a location removed from an office environment, where there are few people and where communication and travel are difficult. This may include land or sea activities within Australia or overseas.

In some situations, a worker may be alone for a short period of time, while in other situations they may be on their own for days or weeks in a remote location. Lone workers are those who work by themselves and/or work in the community with only limited support arrangements, which therefore expose them to risk by being isolated from the usual back-up support. This is the case whether they regularly work alone or are only occasionally alone and do not have access to immediate support from managers or other colleagues.

The potential risk of any serious injury from existing hazard is increased in these unique working environments and requires additional precautions to be taken. A major danger for remote or isolated workers is sustaining an injury overnight or during weekends or holidays, when assistance from other people may be limited.

Closed Loop Systems – a West Australian, Tier 1 service – was established for this very reason. It provides:

Visibility

• TRAVELLER CONDITION MONITORING
• LOCATION ACCURACY TO THREE METRES
• RESPONSE TIME LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES ACROSS 95% OF THE GLOBE
• SINGLE-SCREEN OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
• INTUITIVE SYSTEM

Integrity

• AUDIT HISTORY TO MEET REPORTING FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
• CONSTANT AND CONSISTENT MESSAGING
• CUSTOMISABLE TO SPECIFIC BUSINESS PROCESS OF THE CLIENT
• EASY-TO-USE INTERFACE
• MOTION DETECTION, CHECK-IN AND SOS ALERTING

Reliability

• REAL-TIME JOURNEY MANAGEMENT
• REAL-TIME SPEED MANAGEMENT
• MANAGED GEO FENCING
• PREDICTIVE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

Working remotely: a checklist

Remote or isolated work is work that is isolated from the assistance of other people because of the location, time or nature of the work being done. Assistance from other people includes rescue, medical assistance and emergency services.

With this in mind, the University of Tasmania has created a checklist for remote or isolated works to identify, assess and control the risks.

1. What is the length of time the person may be working alone?
2. What time of day is the person working alone?
   1. Is there an increased risk at this time of day?
3. What forms of communication does the worker have access to?
   1. Are there procedures for regular contact with the worker?
   2. Will the emergency communication system work properly in all situations?
   3. If communication systems are vehicle-based, what arrangements are there to cover the worker when he or she is away from the vehicle?
4. Is the work in a remote location that makes immediate rescue or attendance of emergency services difficult?
   1. What is likely to happen if there is a vehicle breakdown?
5. What is the nature of the work?
   1. What machinery, tools and equipment may be used?
   2. Are high risk activities involved?
   3. Is fatigue likely to increase risk?
   4. Is there an increased risk of violence or aggression when workers have to deal with clients by themselves?
   5. Can environmental factors affect the safety of the worker?
   6. Is there risk of attack by an animal, including reptiles, insects and sea creatures?
6. How skilled and capable is the worker?
   1. What is the worker’s level of work experience and training?
   2. Is the worker able to make sound judgements about his or her own safety?
   3. Are you aware of a pre-existing medical condition that may increase risk?

As you can see from this list, effective communication is integral to a remote worker’s safety. Closed Loop Systems devices are setting the new benchmark for lone worker safety solutions. Our advanced metrics and reporting platform provides a greater level of lone worker safety monitoring, which can be utilised by a range of different industries. 

Flexible and adaptable, our platform can be easily integrated into business practices across all industries, including mining, oil and gas, education and medical, in both metropolitan and remote locations in both Australia and the world – all from a single device smaller than the average phone.