While the surge in fatal accidents in the state, including one at the Blackwater mine earlier this month and another at the Dawson last month, is creating attention there are plenty of safety issues which are being overlooked as mines struggle against low coal prices.

Perhaps the most concerning relate to the pressures facing contractors and labour hire personnel. This group accounts for the overwhelming majority of coal fatalities in the state, with those involving permanent staff being rare, and they also have less workplace rights.

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union Queensland district president Stephen Smyth told ICN that while a lot of the union's members have seen an increase in bullying and harassment during the coal downturn the real issue was with labour hire people and contractors.

As the principal union in coal mining, the CFMEU has quite a few members which are labour hire and contractors, he said.

“Bullying in the workplace is becoming an epidemic with the most vulnerable affected the worst being labour hire and contractors,” he said.

This group was seen as the least likely to complain about safety issues with Smyth saying they feared retribution such as losing work.

Another issue that has emerged is what Smyth called a “big stick mentality” to safety adopted by one of the main coal mining companies where non-permanent staff faced immediate termination for breaching any safety policy or procedure.

The combination of such factors has potentially led to the creation of a class of job loss-fearing workers who will remain compliant no matter how bad safety conditions get.

Looking at an open cut mine with a pre-strip fleet consisting of a permanently employed excavator operator and a host of labour hire company-sourced truck drivers, Smyth said the drivers were routinely forced to dangerously drive through visibility-clouding dust.

At a longwall mine in the state, Smyth said there were shearer operators cutting coal in conditions of up to 24 milligrams per cubic metre of coal dust. This is eight times more than the regulated limit of 3mg/m3.

Smyth also said he found that out through the mine’s department – although it should be noted that it can take up to a minimum of seven days to get dust sample results in the state.

At another open cut coal mine Smyth said there had been 30 reported cases of bullying with a lot of that affecting casual workers and labour hire personnel.

“At the moment it is a real critical stage in our industry,” Smyth told

ICN.

“We’re concerned. We have seen a lot of high potential incidents.”