Phase two of Operation Redwater, a police campaign against drug use and distribution in regional WA, took place last week when police targeted airstrips used by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto with sniffer dogs.
The operation began last month with raids at Fortescue Metal Groups’ Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak mines.
AMMA chief executive Steve Knott said the parties were to be commended for their work in stamping out drug possession on-site.
“AMMA commends Western Australia’s three largest mining employers, BHP Billiton, Rio and Fortescue Metals, in fully supporting the state police’s crackdown on the possible possession or use of illicit drugs in our sector,” he said.
“It is equally pleasing that in both stages of Operation Redwater to date, only a very small minority of mining employees have been found to be doing the wrong thing.
“Unfortunately this small minority potentially puts the majority of their colleagues at serious risk.”
Meanwhile, the AMMA also fully supported a ruling by the Fair Work Commission to uphold the dismissal by a New South Wales mining contractor of an employee found to have four times the cut-off figure of methylamphetamine in her system while working.
The employee’s unfair dismissal claim was backed by the CFMEU, drawing criticism from Fair Work commissioner Ian Cambridge.
“It was highly regrettable to observe during the hearing that an organisation which apparently conducts campaigns which strongly advocate safety in the workplace, could contemplate a position which, in effect, would countenance a person driving a 580 tonne truck while having methylamphetamine in their body at four times the reportable cut-off figure,” he said.
The AMMA said it hoped future decisions by Fair Work Australia would take a similar stance to drugs in the workplace.
“For decades, many remote resource projects have regularly tested for drug detection. It is well understood by employees that this acts as both a deterrent and as an absolute safety measure,” Knott said.
“Unfortunately, this zero tolerance approach is often undermined by the undue interference of third parties who believe they know better or argue on points of ‘fitness for work’, ‘recreational use’, or ‘level of impairment’
“Remote mine sites, large construction projects and FIFO villages are not places where you would want to work alongside a colleague under the influence of drugs. Employers must have the right to manage such safety risks and say that if you touch illicit drugs, there is no place for you on our sites.”
