Safe Work Month 2023 – For Everyone’s Safety, Work Safely

National Safe Work Month is an initiative from Safe Work Australia aimed at raising the profile of health and safety in workplaces across Australia. Safe Work Australia was founded as a joint venture between governments, unions, and industries to drive down the rates of injury and death in the workplace, and Safe Work Month is their central push to do so: an entire month dedicated to raising awareness about hazards team members may be exposed to and engaging in safe behaviours. 

Rates of danger

There’s good reason for Safe Work Australia to focus so heavily on raising awareness of health and safety in mine sites, too. According to Safe Work Australia’s data, the mining industry experienced proportionately higher rates of injury and death compared to industries such as healthcare and social assistance. This leads to a loss of productivity, higher worker’s compensation payouts, and of course, injuries! 

Potential mine site hazards

When you’re on your next swing, there’s a few specific hazards you might want to keep your eyes peeled for.

• The machinery you work with is essential to your work, but it also can be dangerous! Conveyors, crushers, and screens are all potential entanglement or interference hazards. 
• Environmental hazards are a real danger on mine sites. Be mindful of unmarked falls, or areas of operation that might have large amounts of dust in the air or debris.

In addition to physical risks, consider your personal safety behaviours. 

• Managing your levels of fatigue throughout your shift is important for ensuring you can safely manage the risks that you’ll be exposed to, and avoiding fatigue that might impact your ability to operate machinery is vital.
• Consider behaviours such as safe lifting practice to avoid exposing yourself to any unnecessary risk. 

Every mine site is different, so keep your eyes open for any risks that might be out on your site! 

Staying safe

Fortunately, there are a number of behaviours you can engage in to manage the risk you’ll face on-site. 

Maintain situational awareness at all times. Being alert and aware is the first step towards staying safe, and keeping an eye on your surroundings will ensure you’re aware of any risks that might be headed your way.

The usage of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can heavily mitigate the risks that you might face in any area where it’s required, ranging from appropriate facial filtration for aerial contaminants or hearing protection when working around operating heavy machinery. 

Managing the risks

Throughout this year’s Safe Work Month, our Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) team and operational divisions will continue working to raise the bar of safety on our sites. We look forward to engaging in productive conversations with clients, team members, and residents to make sure that safety and safe behaviours are at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

We hope you enjoy a safe and productive Safe Work Month!

Reference ¹ Safe Work Australia. 2023. “Mining.” Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. Safe Work Australia. 2023. https://data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/interactive-data/industry/mining.