Fatigue and Safety in Mining – A Distraction

This paper addresses the contribution, or otherwise, of fatigue to personal damage on mining sites in Australia. It does not address personal damage involving travel to work or off-site road accidents e.g. transport of equipment to and from sites. The story which would be told with respect to fatigue and its contribution to traffic accidents in the public sector would be quite different to that which will be suggested for the mining industry. Fatigue is a much discussed subject, particularly in the last decade. It occupies a significant space in many mining conferences, Codes of Practice, newsletters etc. In addition, Government legislation places requirements on employees and employers with respect to fitness, duty of care etc. There are Alerts issued which reinforce the fatigue issue. Essentially, there is a complex set of “drivers” which result in an organisation’s available resources being strongly directed towards fatigue management. However, should the expectation of effective fatigue management be one of a change in the pattern of personal damage from work on mining skips? Perhaps effective fatigue management has longer term implications for health and societal improvements? This paper will suggest that effective fatigue management will not have any noticeable reduction in future occupational safety (versus health) associated with on-site work-related damage. At best it will produce minimal gains.