Contractors cutting coal in older underground mines like Southern Colliery is still rare, and the CFMEU reacted strongly against the proposal. Jakeman said the CFMEU tried everything in its power to prevent HWE coming on site, including taking the matter to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

“This was a ploy against the use of contractors,” he said. “It failed on two counts. We had the ability in our enterprise award and had been using it for three years in a range of areas in the mine, and we had not sacked or misplaced persons out of the mine.

“The union then tried to mount a legal challenge under the safety legislation, indicating that contract supervisors are unsafe compared to our own supervisors. A risk assessment was done and it was demonstrated that an employer has an obligation for all types of employees to train

them in their work duties.

 

“On the mine site, management was under pressure with mysterious complaints to the Department of Mines and Energy about safety breaches. After these were fully investigated, no breaches were found. The union then tried to mount pressure on HWE and took them to court. Again they (the CFMEU) failed.”

Jakeman added that what the union refused to understand was that if the business performed well, there would be little need to do “corrective surgery” such as using contractors to cut coal.

Another major reform over the past 18 months has been the improved level of professionalism and emphasis on safety, particularly among the younger companies.

Mastermyne’s Watts said the rough and ready contractor had long gone. “Contracting is now at a level which is at least equivalent to the operating standards of a mine, with many contracting companies having safety records superior to those of the mining companies they are contracting to,” he said. “The requirements in the level of documentation in relation to procedures, work standard and time recording has increased substantially too.”

Even smaller companies such as Eastern Mining Construction Company (EMCC) are hanging their hats on safety.

EMCC was established in March 2000 to tender for contracts worth up to $5 million. The company has 20 employees and is developing the Nardell mine, north of Singleton, including drift, shaft and pit bottom development.

“There is a little niche market in there for contracting. There are some big players coming into the game, but there is still the need for the smaller operator,” said EMCC general manager, Vince Martin. “Our company is fully backed with occupational health safety people and we’re making a genuine attempt to comply and make sure the management of the mines we operate know we’re providing them the best of service.

“The emphasis on safety, training and hazard analysis is a significant change in recent times. Risk analysis and things of that nature will improve the overall safety of the industry.”

Others feel there has been an emergence of very small, under﷓capitalised contractors with poor safety performance. WCG’s Roberts believes inexperienced contract employees are being placed in unacceptable situations. “Contractors have become an enormous focus with regard to safety performance,” he said. “Yet some mine owners seem unable to look past the lowest price on offer, giving little or no regard to the true costs associated with a contractor establishing and maintaining correct safety systems and procedures, along with the training, auditing and documentation that goes with this.”

While there have been issues with “shonky” contractors in the past, SBD’s Kathage believes they (the contractors) are being “weeded out” by mine owners. “I know of one such operator doing secondary support who lost the contract because of its safety performance,” he said. “We went in and replaced that contractor even though we were more expensive, but our safety performance was what they (mine owners) wanted.

“You’ll find that the poor operators won’t survive very long in the industry because of the focus on safety by the owners.”

A side-effect of the growth in contract mining work has been the difficulty in sourcing experienced miners. Mastermyne’s Watts said while it was relatively easy for him to source labour for the long-term contracts the company has in the Bowen Basin, it was very difficult to find experienced people for the short term contracts of 4-10 weeks.

“Mastermyne has the advantage of having a fairly stable workforce of 80 personnel, peaking at 150 and troughing at 70, over the past 12 months. This enables us to train inexperienced personnel with experienced personnel,” he said. “Mastermyne utilises the services of several of the smaller contracting companies throughout the region to ensure the supply of a quality job.”

SBD is facing the same issue and the company is developing a number of schemes to provide security for its employees and to develop inexperienced people to industry standard. “We’ve got a couple of plans in place that we’ve been trialling and working successfully and we’ll probably widen those plans to give us a competitive edge,” Kathage said.

* This article originally appeared in the September 2000 edition of Australia's Longwalls.