Kate du Preez, Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health in Queensland, Australia, notes that fatigue has long been recognised as a hazard in the mining industry. Long shifts and extended working periods in remote locations can be exhausting and with a general trend towards longer on-shift rotations, fatigue management remains a prominent issue in mine safety and health discussions.

She said that despite this wide recognition of the dangers of fatigue, incidents are still occurring. “In the past 12 months, there have been at least two tragic road accidents involving mine workers who have been killed while driving home from a rotation,” she said.

“In fact, driving home from work is potentially the most dangerous part of the job for mine workers. So, with that in mind, I was quite alarmed by an article in the Mackay Daily Mercury recently which reported that almost half of the 200 attendees at the 2018 Resource Industry Network Safety Conference admitted to experiencing ‘microsleeps’ while driving.

“Think about that for a moment. Almost half of the attendees at a conference primarily attended by leaders in the mining industry had experienced a potentially deadly microsleep while driving.

“That number is particularly concerning because there are specific measures in place to mitigate the risks posed by worker fatigue.”

The Guidance Note for Fatigue Risk Management (issued in 2013 and revised in 2015) was developed as a result of a number of recommendations from the Coroners Court of Queensland, and considered by both mining safety and health advisory committees, related to the deaths of mine workers from fatigue-related car accidents.

The guidance note outlines the various considerations for mines to effectively manage fatigue and provides mine operators and mine workers with a comprehensive overview of the factors that contribute to workplace fatigue and how they can be controlled.

“Our duty of care to workers does not stop when people clock off at the end of a shift,” du Preez said.

“One of my priorities for 2018–19 is to hold a series of workshops with the coal mining and the mining and quarrying safety and health advisory committees to examine current practices in the industry and to share information and data available in relation to fatigue, and to find possible solutions to enhance fatigue management.

“These workshops will provide an opportunity to examine the causes of these incidents and further explore strategies that we can implement to minimise the risk to workers.”

The first workshop is scheduled to be held in July 2018.