Shane isenjoying his new work. Six months ago, he was stocking shelves at his localsupermarket and decided to make the big move to a job in mining with morechallenge and, of course, more dollars. He's been through his inductions,received his training tickets and is now working in a crew of eight undergroundat a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) operation. There are many more systems and processeshere than in his retail job, and Shane's comfortable that his safety is beinglooked after. He is enjoying the continually changing work and conditions, itmakes the job interesting. It's taking some time to get used to the roster andhe is worn out by changeover, but he gets more time with friends and familyduring R & R._x000D_
Generally, themining industry has a maturing safety culture and well developed systems. Thissometimes lulls people into a false sense of security. Safety systems cannotanticipate every possible situation, nor can they replace people's perception,thinking and decision-making. To manage safety, it's critical to find the rightbalance between dependence on systems and a healthy fear and respect of risks weface._x000D_
As safetystandards are raised, systems tend to get more thorough and complex. When a newperson joins a mining crew, we induct and train them to provide the informationthey need. As labour availability again becomes short, and many new people joinour industry, we shouldn't assume they know the fundamentals. We need to explainnot only what they are expected to do, but why doing what we ask and expect willkeep them safe. We must equip people to deal with both the routine and theunexpected._x000D_
Thispresentation explores the challenges of balancing a structured, systematicapproach to safety with the need to also equip people to deal effectively withrisks everyday in dynamic and extraordinarysituations._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION: Stenvers, S and Downs, E, 2010. Tackling the gorillas - hairy scary complacency to safety in mining or a bananapacker's story, in Proceedings SustainableMining 2010, pp 285-287 (The Australasian Institute of Mining andMetallurgy: Melbourne).