3. Is there anyone in the room not getting these
email Notifications
4. Exercise
In groups of 2-3 please write down what you do on your site in
relation to the following:
• Safety Alerts/Safety Bulletins
• Investigation Reports
• Weekly Incident summary
• Site inspections with Inspectors
• Notices
7. Safety Alerts
• The Regulator has a safety alert
database which is an important
communication tool between the
Department and the NSW mining
industry, suppliers, unions and
industry organisations.
• Safety alerts are issued following the
occurrence of an event such as a fatal
accident, dangerous occurrence or
any incident which is considered to be
of significance to the industry, with the
aim of preventing a similar occurrence
9. Safety Bulletins
• Safety bulletins
contain information
relating to mine
safety issues.
• They are similar
to Safety alerts but
are not directly linked
to a specific incident.
11. Investigation
Reports
The Major Safety Investigations unit
publishes reports on incidents as a useful
resource for industry.
The reports provide:
• information useful for a risk assessment
• cause and circumstance of the incident
• findings
• best practice
• action taken after the incident
• relevant published reference material
14. Weekly Incident Summary
Critical An incident that results in a death or
where a person may die from their
injuries.
Severe An incident that results in serious injury
or serious illness.
Elevated A dangerous incident that exposes a
person to serious risk to their health and
safety.
Standard Non-notifiable medical treatment injury
or high potential incident that would
have been dangerous if a person were in
the vicinity at the time.
Monitoring A high potential incident that does not
pose an imminent risk to health and
safety and no injury occurs, and there are
no aggravating factors.
• The NSW Resources Regulator's
Mine Safety unit publishes a
reportable incidents summary
each week.
• The weekly summary shows the
total number of reportable
incidents in a seven day period
and summarises incidents of note.
24. Who should be informed on site?
• Employers/workers on site
• Contractors on site
• Contractors who may attend
site
• Subbies, e.g. haulage
contractors
• Suppliers and equipment
manufacturers
• All Persons
25. Exercise Are you going to do anything
differently with the following
• Safety Alerts/Safety Bulletins
• Investigation Reports
• Weekly Incident summary
• Notices
26. Have you considered the following
• Is the Alert/Bulletin applicable to your site.
• All recommendations listed in the Alert/Bulletin considered and
actioned for completion.
• Have you identified all potential workers and or contractors who may
attend your site which the communication maybe applicable.
• Do you pass Alerts/Bulletins/communication onto your contractors or
Subbies if applicable.
• Have you documented your actions in relation to the Alert/Bulletin
27. Why we should review & act on information
Section 19 (3) a person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is
reasonably practicable—
a) the provision and maintenance of a work environment without risks to health and safety,
and
b) the provision and maintenance of safe plant and structures, and
c) the provision and maintenance of safe systems of work, and
d) the safe use, handling, and storage of plant, structures and substances, and
e) the provision of adequate facilities for the welfare at work of workers in carrying out work for
the business or undertaking, including ensuring access to those facilities, and
f) the provision of any information, training, instruction or
supervision that is necessary to protect all persons from risks
to their health and safety arising from work carried out as part of
the conduct of the business or undertaking, and
g) that the health of workers and the conditions at the workplace are monitored for the
purpose of preventing illness or injury of workers arising from the conduct of the business
or undertaking.
28. How the Regulator Communicates with the Industry
2020 Small Mines Roadshow
Editor's Notes
Listed is the way the Regulator communicates with industry.
The presentation will mainly focus on the electronic types.
Each type of communication is listed in the presentation and each will be discussed in more detail in the presentation
Ask the question does anybody not get electronic communication from the regulator
The screen shot is from the Resources Regulator in NSW Web page (Resources Regulator NSW)
Let people know that in the quick links section on the screen(blue writing) allows people to subscribe to the regulators newsletters and safety alerts
Get people to gather into groups of 2-3.
On a piece of paper Get them to list what they review and how they do it and who they do it with. The will need to list each type and their actions (we should develop and give out a sheet.
Ask the question What are the outcomes for their site from receiving this communication from the regulator
Just a brief overview of what each type of inspection is and how we will conduct it and what documents we are likely to use
Slide is from the Regulator web page and just lists a list of recent safety alerts, safety Bulletins and investigation reports
Safety Alerts are generated from an occurrence or an event at a mine site like a dangerous incident or a significant incident where workers have been injured and put in danger.
Safety Alerts are an important communication tool the regulator uses to inform the industry of incidents, the circumstances around the incident and recommendation relating to the incident to help prevent further or similar occurrences.
Just go through the safety alert and identify the key issues of the alert
Incident type Truck tailgate hits workers head
Issue
Circumstances
Investigation
Recommendations
Note to group that we have had 3 additional incidents involving tailgate issues on NSW mine sites since the Departments Investigation Report into the fatality at Rixs creek coal mine in Decembers 2016 where the company was later fined $90,000 in the District court
Similar to Safety Alerts but are not always linked directly to a specific incident. It could be emerging issues the Regulators is becoming aware of.
RHS slide is from our web page and lists the latest bulletins.
Again go through the main headings.
Need to focus on the recommendations
Ask the question does anybody actually review the recommendations from alerts and bulletins and ensure their site is complaint.
In relation to bunding there was a recent incident where a rigid 35t dump truck drove through a bund and rolled down a 10m embankment. Luckily no one died
or was seriously injured as the operator was wearing a seat belt.
May want to talk abound bunding in general as ½ wheel height is only a minimum standard
Investigation report are generated by the major investigation unit generally from an extreme incident where someone has died or has been seriously injured.
They are similar to Safety Alerts and Safety Bulletins but go into much more depth which is explained on the slide
Just go through the investigation heading picking out the main points from each heading
As before
If signed up the Regulator emails out a weekly incident summary of the incidents that have occurred on NSW mining sites that week.
Each incident is triaged by the CAU and categorised into incident level listed on the second slide.
Explain that the triage level dictates the Regulators response to either deploy Inspectors, investigators or let the mine manage the incident and investigation
Just talk to the slide
Note the first incident is coal and probably not applicable to a quarry but incident 2 and 3 relate to quarries.
Note the comments to the industry as the key points they need to look at in relation to their sites
The slide is from the Regulators web page not items listed in blue are quick links which will take you straight to either events, safety alerts or safety bulletins.
The page also allows you to subscribe to them a swell.
RHS shows upcoming events like the Small mines workshops. These are listed in date order.
Just a copy of sections a recent Mine safety News email
The Mine safety News contains information on
Significant incidents
Links to the most recent safety alerts and Safety Bulletins
Upcoming events roadshows and workshops
Industry Messages/information from the Regulator
Changes in legislation or workplace standards
And links to industry standards
We covered Notices last year but Inspectors are required to issue appropriate notices for safety issues identified while undertaking site inspections.
S195 stop work generally on an item of plant or work practice(Inspector believes there us a serious risk to health or Safety)
S191, Improvement Notice, issued where there is a breach or non compliance in relation of legislation
S23 Notice of concern, May not be a direct breach of legislation but may be below industry standards or expectations
S198 Non disturbance, issued after a reportable incident where an accident scene needs to be preserved for longer than the non disturbance set down in legislation.
Other notices not mentioned S155
Slides are from the regulators web page
LHS slide has the quick link in BLUE YOUTUBE which takes you to the RHS slide sowing recent videos
RHS shows the recent list of youtube videos
Pick either video and play – links have been inserted
Contact us about the regulation of safety and health in NSW mines and petroleum sites and compliance with the Mining Act.
Option 1 – Report a work, health or safety incident - mine operators
Mine operators are required to report an incident or notify us on a range of matters. If there is a serious injury or illness, a death or a dangerous incident, you must report it to us immediately by calling 1300 814 609 or emailing cau@planning.nsw.gov.au (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
You will also need to log in to the Regulator Portal to access the incident and provide further information as required.
Option 2, option 2 – for all licensing and registration enquiries under the WHS Mines & Petroleum Act, or email mca@planning.nsw.gov.au
Option 2, option 3 – for all practicing certificate, statutory function exams and competency enquiries under the WHS Mines & Petroleum Act, or email mca@planning.nsw.gov.au
Option 2, option 4 – for all safety general enquiries under the WHS Mine & Petroleum Act, or email cau@planning.nsw.gov.au
Option 2, option 5 – all compliance matters and enquiries under the Mining Act, or email nswresourcesregulator@service-now.com
In here you will find information about your mine
Incident notifications & adverse health monitoring
Operation notifications – survey plan, statutory notifications, commencement of mining, connection of electrical supply, mine closure or interruption, commencement of intermittent mining operations
People notifications - mine contacts, quarry manager, electrical person
Notices issued by the regulator
You can add attachments such as photos, documents, videos, any type of file
In some cases you can chat to the regulator in some of the notifications
This is where you notify the regulator
Go through each identified group and relate an example from a alert of Bulletin
Depending on time this can be done as an exercise in the same groups as before or it can be done from the floor asking questions of the participants.
The NSW Resources Regulator has the responsibility of promoting high standards of safety within the NSW mining industry and ensuring compliance with legislation. This requires mines to manage their activities in such a manner as to identify and assess risk to the safety and health of persons at their mine and to deal with those risks on a priority basis.
The distribution of Safety Alerts to mine sites is a positive method of alerting operations of high-risk activities, and incidents which have occurred within industry. The departmental expectation is that each operation will utilise the information from every safety alert for the current and future safety of the operation. The safety alert issue process should prevent the recurrence of every high risk activity and incident, and ensure conformance with legislative requirements while meeting community expectations.
Ask the Question What do you think the Regulator would do if they sent out information relating to an incident by way of an Safety Alert or Safety Bulletin and you did not implement the recommendations and later you seriously injured a worker on your site with a very similar incident.
RR has a Audit checklist on its Web page but is date 2007
Remember the regulator informed Industry through an investigation report about tailgate incident which killed a worker and again issued a Safety alert after 3 more incidents which all had to potential to kill workers.
Not all safety Alerts relate to your site. If its about underground coal it may not be applicable to a sand quarry., but there are examples that do count. For example a worker in an incident that involved working on an electrical installation in an underground coal mine might be very much applicable to working on electrical installation at a sand mine
If the regulator identifies critical controls which are listed in the recommendations there is an expectation that they are considered and implemented.
You need to ensure all workers who work on site are consulted regarding issues that relate to them. If the issue is in and around electricity your electrical contactor and your nominated electrical trades person should be included or notified. In relation to the safety alert on tailgates we would expect that your haulage contactors would be included.
It is a good practice to record/document your actions in relation to each alert/Bulletin/investigation
Ask the question does the information supplied by the Regulator especially recommendations meet the requirements of Section 19 of the Work Health and Safety Act which is the Mine Operators responsibility?
When the regulator sends out information it will normally be related to one or more of the broad Primary duty of care requirements, but once you are in possession of such information then you need to demonstrate that you have provided this information to protect all persons from the risks associated with the information
Note that the legislation applies to everyone who attends/works on your site and not just the Mine operators workers
Go through the highlighted sections and give examples that may apply.