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SKILLS TRAINING IN THE AUSTRALIAN MINING INDUSTRY

WITH EMPHASIS ON SAFETY AND PRODUCTIVITY OUTCOMES

Phillip Martin Warren

General Manager - Hunter Plant Operator Training School Ltd.

Safety and Productivity are critical factors in the performance of the Australian

Mining Industry. Safety due to the expectation of the Australian community that

no one should die at work and productivity is the key to survival in an

increasingly competitive world marketplace. Where does training fit into the

safety improvement equation? Is it critical or peripheral?

INTRODUCTION

The Commonwealth of Australia is a federation of six states and two territories

with national government being responsible for the economy, defense and

trade. The state and territory governments are responsible for education, health

and infrastructure (all with commonwealth taxation revenue) and, in the context

of this paper, occupational health and safety.

The mining industry peak body, the Minerals Council of Australia has a vision of

An Australian minerals industry free of fatalities and disease. 1

National turnover in mining was A $37.3 billion (US $23.5 B) in 1998/99 and

with reducing manpower levels productivity is trending upwards.

SAFETY

All governments in Australia are committed to the reduction of workplace

fatalities and serious injury in all sectors of the Australian economy. Mining has

a reputation as being a dangerous injury sector with a high rate of serious injury

and fatalities.

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Each State (through its Department of Mines or Department of Minerals &

Energy) is responsible for developing and administrating its own minerals-

related activities and laws. For example, in Western Australia, "the Mines Safety

and Inspection Act 1994 provides for the competent management, inspection

and regulation of mines and mining practices relating to the safety and health of

employees in the industry and to the safety of persons in the wider community,

who may be impacted on indirectly by mining operations". The Minerals Council

of Australia is the national industry representative organization for mining

companies. In December 1996 the board of the Council accepted safety as its

most important priority. There are currently a raft of safety reviews before the

various State Department of Mines especially in the states of New South Wales

and Queensland where virtually all underground coal mines are located. The

Minerals Council has stated that improving safety requires a new safety culture

rather than new technology or government regulations. It has been concerned

that the response to disasters has usually been to change regulations and/or

increase the number of mine site inspectors. It is arguing that the change in

workplace culture needs to filter from management down. 8

During the last ten years a huge effort has been made by the industry to

improve its safety record. There has been an improvement in the lost-time injury

frequency rate (LTIF - the number of injuries with at least one full shift absence

per million hours worked). However, no improvement trend has been noted in

the fatality rate.

Year 1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00

Fatalities - Open

Cut & Other

7 14 14 3 11 6 3 18

Fatalities

Underground

12 6 18 4 22 13 7 14

Total 19 20 32 7 33 19 10 32

LTIF 33 28 25 21 18 15 12 10

TABLE 1 FATALITY AND LOST TIME INJURY FREQUENCY AUSTRALIAN MINING

INDUSTRY1

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Dick Wells, Executive Director, Minerals Council of Australia observed in a

speech in August 1999 the adoption of risk management approaches and

improvements in safety management systems certainly appear to have brought

down the number of lost time injuries. But there is no corresponding, sustained

reduction in the number of fatalities or potentially fatal incidents 3

The volatility in the fatality rate is evidenced by the column graph with the LTIF

tending downwards over the eight years.

Australian Mining - Fatalities and LITF

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00

Year

F

atalities

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

LTIF

Fatalities - Open Cut & Other Fatalities - Underground LTIF

FIGURE 1. FATALITIES AND LOST TIME INJURY FREQUENCY AUSTRALIA 1

Australian mineral industry safety and health performance generally compares

favorably with the performance of USA, South Africa and Ontario mining

industries.

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Australian fatality injury frequency rates are significantly lower than South

African rates, Australia performs slightly better than the USA overall and in all

sectors except underground metalliferous mining, where the USA rates are

slightly better than Australia. 1

The human cost is significant while the cost of injury/poisoning claims was

some $ 40 million in 1996/97. 1

It has been estimated that the indirect costs to the employer such as loss of

productivity, investigation of incidents and claims, rehabilitation, damage to

equipment and tools, employee turnover and training costs, etc., can more than

double the cost of claims. Taking this into account the total cost to the minerals

would be in the order of $ 80 millionwhich amounts to 16% of mining industry

net profits of $ 567 million in 1997-98. The mining industry in Australian has

adopted safety management systems to track and plan safety training and

compliance tasks and, more recently, the industry has embraced a risk

management approach to safety at all levels of operation. 6

A survey of employees at Australian mines has shown high levels of

dissatisfaction with safety management systems particularly in the quality of

programs and training. 3

This dissatisfaction was described as a gulf by Barry Cusack, Senior Vice-

President, Minerals Council of Australia in a speech to the MineSafe

International 2000 Conference in Perth, Western Australia. The survey foundthat, despite management successfully communicating that safety is important,

the workforce did not believe that management valued them, or adequately

recognised safety and safe work practices. 4

Mr. Wells advocates a behavioral approach to meet the challenge of improving

safety in Australian mines. He noted the safety culture survey suggests that

any good safety management system must be accompanied by a behavioral

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based component that incorporates management flexibility and a teams-

approach in order to be truly effective. 3

Australia has made a strategic effort to improve its safety record in the mining

industry. Real improvements in the fatality rate are proving to be elusive. The

industry is looking for methods that will produce the improvements sought. The

combination of good safety systems, risk management coupled with programs

that recognize the human dimensions that manifest in culture and commitment

to safety.

PRODUCTIVITY

Australia has, since 1990, embraced an economic rationalist approach to

management of the countrys economy. This approach has led to industry

taking action to reduce the manning levels at all points in the production chain.

This trend has led to improvements in productivity through the nineties. Many

argue that real improvements are yet to be realized as bad industrial

arrangements had led to an overly large mining workforce.

In the two-year period until 30 June 1999, the Australian Mining Industry lost

over 9,000 positions to close with 47,300 positions.

The worlds largest coal exporter, the Australian black coal industry is the

countrys largest export industry and was reviewed by the Productivity

Commission. This review, completed in July 1998 sought to identify the factors

that were affecting the productivity of an industry that accounted for 10 per cent(over A$9 billion) of Australias merchandise exports, and more than 1 per cent

of gross domestic product. The report detailed a range of issues affecting

productivity including: 5

Management structures

Industrial relations

Rail transport to seaboard

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Overly regulated industry

Shift and roster arrangements

Excessive union involvement in decision making

Similar to the whole of the Australian Mining Industry, the Black Coal sector has

been shedding jobs in an effort to remain internationally competitive, from a

maximum in 1986 of 32,700 employees down to 23,800 in 1997. Average

annual coal industry output (saleable) per employee has increased continuously

from 2800 tons in 1980 to 8400 tons in 1997, a compound annual growth rate of

around 6.7 per cent. Note that the Report cautions that these figures mirror

greater emphasis on the open-cut sector, and the use of improved technology in

the use of longwall techniques in the underground coal sector. 5

Hopkins in the Journal of Occupational Health and Safety Vol. 10 No. 5

reinforces the impact of technology on productivity. Productivity, or output per

worker, is sometimes naively assumed to be a measure of how hard a person is

working. The fact is that the major productivity trends have nothing to do with

the effort made by workers. The primary factor which influences output is thetechnology in use or, more simply, the kind of machinery which he or she is

operating. Hopkins also argues that, in the context of long-wall underground

coal mining in Australia that the quest for greater productivity leads, at least

potentially, to greater safety. Improved safety is an incidental by-product of

increased productivity, not its cause. 9

A project carried out at Macraes Gold Mine in New Zealand sought to reduceaccidents and to increase productivity. McDonald et al report The data do not

suggest outright success. The paper reports on the reduction of both the

number of lost-time injuries, together with the severity of injury. However, there

was an increase in the number of injuries requiring some form of treatment. The

mine management regarded this as a success, as it had a key feature of

management policy is that all incidents, no matter how minor, are reported.

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The study also notes that there was a cost control program introduced that

prevented effective use of the productivity and efficiency measures. 10

McDonald et al note that the absence of clear data made the study prove as

frustrating as it can appear enlightening. They do observe the ability to

integrate training, career progression and wages advancement in a clear

structure that has proven of particular value to the organization, and they

further caution that creating a multi-skilled workforce because it is widely

advocated, may be of little benefit, unless a systematic and comprehensive

needs analysis indicates that it is also practical. 10

Globalization has underpinned Australias efforts to continually improve the

productivity of the countrys economy. In mining, Australia has competitors in

most, if not all, of our key exports.

Australias Share of 1999 World Production

Product Unit Quantity Share of World

Production

World

Ranking

Bauxite Mt 48.5 37.9 % 1

Alumina Mt 14.5 29.4 % 1

Black Coal Mt 234 6.7 % 7

Copper (Mine) kt 719 5.8 % 4

Gold (Mine) t 299 11.6 % 3

Iron Ore and Concentrate Mt 719 14.4 % 2

Lead (Mine) kt 681 23.1 % 2

TABLE 2 AUSTRALIAS WORLD RANKING AS A MINERALS PRODUCER 12

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Australias Value of Exports (1997 to 2000)

Product 1997

A$ m

1998

A$ m

1999

A$ m

2000

A$ m

Bauxite 122 135 161 133

Alumina 2 887 2 910 3 470 4 220

Black Coal 9 532 9 239 8 308 8 933

Copper (Mine) 822 968 765 468

Gold (Mine) 5 234 4 470 3 875 4 558

Iron Ore and Concentrate 3 791 3 844 3 820 4 299

Lead (Mine) 140 213 241 261

TABLE 3 AUSTRALIAS VALUE OF RAW MATERIAL EXPORTS 12

Note: A $1 = US $0.55

Australians recognize the cost impost of transporting our raw materials exports

to major markets in Japan, Europe and North America. This recognition

underpins many of our efforts to improve productivity.

The productivity picture in Australian mines, when benchmarked against a US

sample provides evidence of where Australian mines are performing well. The

large open-cut mines are comparing well with operations in the USA in truck

and shovel and also dragline operations. At the other end of the scale small

mines are, understandably, finding it difficult in the highly competitive world

market. 7

Queenslands dragline operations, as a sample group, were identified as best

practice, operating at productivity levels around 20 to 25 per cent higher than

similar mines in the United States and NSW (Australia) samples. This good

productivity performance was consistently achieved in the Queensland

operations, and appeared due to good engineering, management and labor

practices. 7

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The productivity of Australias mining industry, at the best operations, is

comparable to the best in the world. The imperative that Australia remains

competitive in the world market provides an incentive for improving less

productive operations and the difficult decision in the case of small mines of

amalgamation or closure.

TRAINING

Australia embraced a National Training Agenda in 1990 that sought to address

training in the terms of Industry Competency Standards that defined what skills

were needed to perform the duties in all occupational groups. Governments in

Australia will spend in the order of A$3 400 million in 2001 on vocational

education and training. Since 1990 the national government has invested in the

order of A$1 000 million on its agenda of change to make training more

responsive to the needs of industry. The focus of the change has been the

development and implementation of competency based training. The economic

driver for this initiative has been the need for Australias export industry to

remain competitive in world markets, as competition has increased from Asia

and from other factors such as the end of the cold war.

Competency based training by its definition seeks to analyze what a person

must be able to do in his/her skilled occupation. The delivered training then

addresses the actual skill required by a fitter, a welder or a mine production

worker.

To allow the industries of Australia to advise government of their training needsa set of Industry Training Advisory Boards have been established (See

Figure 2). The National Mining Industry Training Advisory Board (NMITAB)

advises the national government, and its agencies of the training needs of the

whole of the mining industry in Australia.

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National

Government

and State

Governments

Taxation MoniesAustralian National

Training Authority

(ANTA)

Set policies and funds

each of eight states

Industry Sectors

e.g. MiningConstruction

Government or Private

RTOs provide funded

training.

National Industry Training

Advisory Boards

For each sector

Advice

Feedback and

Advice

Advice

FeedbackState Industry Training

Advisory Boards

For each sector

State Education

Authorities

Allocates funds based

upon training priorities

FIGURE 2 DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION OF FEEDBACK ANDADVICE MECHANISMS

INAUSTRALIAN VOCATIONAL TRAINING

NMITAB has been charged with the responsibility of developing the national

competency standards for the drilling, quarry, coal and hard-rock mining

sectors. This and other national priorities for training are funded using taxation

monies through the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA).

The national competency standards are used as the basis of training programs

and, importantly, assessment tools that measure the level of skill being

demonstrated by an individual, say, as a front-end loader operator.

All nationally registered training providers whether government or private is

readily able to use the national competency standards as the benchmark for

their service provision. In Australia vocational education providers are

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designated Registered Training Organizations (RTO). To be classified as an

RTO a training provider must satisfy a set of registration criteria on the quality of

staffing, range of courses, training delivery and records keeping. Each RTO can

issue nationally recognised qualifications that are part of their unique

registration. The certificates issued by each RTO have national codes and must

be recognised by all other RTOs.

Another cornerstone of the Australian vocational training system is the delivery

of training and assessment by what are termed workplace trainers and

assessors. A National Assessors and Workplace Trainers Advisory Board

(NAWTB) has been established to oversight the competency standards and

training for workplace trainers and assessors. Workplace trainers deliver

training to their fellow employees in either an ad-hoc or formal manner. This

training is generally for tasks that are more suitable for training on-the-job than

in an educational institution (e.g. adjusting a diesel injection system).

Similarly experienced workers who have workplace assessor qualifications may

perform assessments of the skills of fellow workers to the appropriate nationalcompetency standard (e.g. assess a candidate in the process of adjusting a

diesel injection system).

The mix of on-the-job training to off-the-job training is seen to be important

depending upon the occupation. Mining plant operator training is generally

about 90% on machines while supervisor training may be 60-70% in the

classroom. Relevance is also a key to the success of training. In RelationshipsBetween Training and Productivity, DTEC says there was high awareness of

the need to make training relevant to the overall needs of the business as well

as to the needs of employees, in order to fulfil both their immediate job needs

and broader career aspirations, and of high quality and high efficiency and

effectiveness. 11

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A debate is current in Australia about the value of competency based training,

when high productivity levels are required. For example, a person who is

deemed competent to operate a drilling rig may have satisfactorily completed a

theory and practical assessment that addresses all of key safety and technical

skills aspects of drilling rig operations. However, no effort is made to evaluate

the efficiency of operation.

Some companies are making an effort to address the concept of efficiency, by

providing training that extends beyond competency to proficiency. Proficiency

allows measurement of both competency and the ability of a person to perform

tasks at an acceptable level of productivity. For example, a dump truck operator

will be assessed as competent, when he can perform pre-start checks, routine

maintenance, safe-working procedures and all other required operations. When

extended to proficiency, measures such as round-trip cycle-time, effective

placement of the truck for loading, response to road and weather conditions and

so on are evaluated. Deficiencies are identified and training is used to remedy

any shortcomings. Caution has to be shown to avoid any compromise of safe

working procedures in the effort to increase productivity.

DTEC like Macraes Gold Mine notes the difficulty is measuring improvements in

skill and productivity. The study found that there were difficulties in isolating the

effects of training on productivity given the inter-relationship between factors of

production, especially in an environment of rapid organizational and economic

change. Nevertheless, it was clear that training had a positive influence on

productivity.

11

DTEC reports some of the comments to its survey of a range of businesses.

Appropriate training is the most sensible way to improve productivity and

job satisfaction.

Training is imperative for on-going success and growth.

Training is part of our core change management strategy.11

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The report concludes While the multiple dimensions of both training and

productivity make it difficult to quantify the relationship, it is clear from this study

that organizations that conduct training consider that there is a very positive

link. Training is seen as a very important activity by the vast majority of

organizations surveyed, and is an activity from which they consider they are

gaining significant, and often very substantial productivity benefits. This augurs

well for productivity of Australian enterprises which invest in training. 11

REFERENCES

1. Safety & Health, Safety Survey Report for 1 July 1990 to 30 June 2000;

Australian Minerals Industry.

2. 8414.0 Australian Mining Industry 31 October 2000; Australian Bureau of

Statistics.

3. Wells, Dick; Executive Director, Minerals Council of Australia, Safety culture

highlighting the next steps for safety and health improvement. Speech at

Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference 23 August 1999.

4. Cusack, Barry, Senior Vice President, Minerals Council of Australia.

Corporate Responsibility and Leadership More Than Words. Speech atMinesafe International, Perth, Western Australia, 3-8 September 2000.

5. The Australian Black Coal Industry, Productivity Commission, 1998, Inquiry

Report, AusInfo, Canberra.

6. Safety & Health, Performance Report 1997-1998 Australian Minerals

Industry.

7. Benchmarking the Productivity of Australias Black Coal Industry, June 1998

Tasman Asia Pacific Pty Ltd.8. Mining Industry Equipment Australia Author John Kanawati 1997 US &

Foreign and Commercial Service and US Department of State.

9. Hopkins, A. Is productivity related to safety? The case of coal mining.

Journal of Occupational Health & Safety Australia New Zealand 1994 Vol.

10 No. 5.

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10. McDonald, S; McDermott, D; Theunissen, T; and Crossley, W. Training for

safety and productivity in the mining industry: a case study. Journal of

Occupational Health & Safety Australia New Zealand 1994 Vol. 10 No. 2.

11. Strategic Planning, resources, Research and Industry Network Services,

DTEC, Relationships Between Training and Productivity. Department of

Training and Education Co-ordination, March 1997.

12. ABARE, Minestats Australia, September 2000. Australian Bureau of

Agricultural and Resource Economics.

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