Employees have won the right to impose 10-hour shifts for underground coal workers at ordinary-time pay rates without union agreement. In May, a Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, led by the commission president, Justice Geoffrey Giudice changed the award provisions for hours of work in the coal industry. The Full Bench decision overturned a previous award provision restricting shift lengths to eight hours, unless longer shifts had majority employee support.

The Full Bench also reformed award sick leave provisions to increase the onus on employees to notify companies of unplanned absences as soon as possible.

While mine managers have applauded the outcome saying it opens the door to more flexible work arrangements, the unions reacted by condemning the decision as backward. General president of the CFMEU mining and energy division, Tony Maher said underground coal workers had a one-in-28 chance of being killed at work and threatened stopwork meetings at mine sites to consider how to respond to the commission's decision.

Coinciding with this development was the release of a report by the Queensland Mining Council called Safety Performance Related to Shiftwork in the Queensland Mining Industry. The report, which investigated the effects of shiftwork on health and safety, was based on a literature search on health and safety in industrial situations and an analysis of the Queensland Department of Mines and Energy (QDME) injury records for 1998/99.

"Results from these analyses indicate that in 1998/99, workers on 12-hour shifts had a significantly lower injury rate than those working on 8-hour shifts," the report said. "In the past five years there has been a significant shift toward extended shift lengths and compressed work weeks and at the same time the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) for Australia has fallen by over 50% (the figures for Queensland are the same).

In other words, industry moves to extend shifts and introduce compressed work weeks had improved health and safety standards in the industry. The report also attempted to separate clinical studies on fatigue from the safety and health impacts of shiftwork in the mining industry. "The literature is contradictory with many papers highlighting the advantages of different shift roster systems and others the pitfalls of apparently the same systems," the report said.

The QMC commissioned the report in response to draft guidelines aimed at regulating shiftwork or rostering which came out last year from Queensland Minister for Mines and Energy, Tony McGrady.

In a press release on the links between fatigue and shiftwork McGrady said: "I have heard accounts of workers in the coal industry finishing a 12 hour shift then driving for two hours to start work at another mine. That's not a good situation. I've also heard that some people are working 12 hour shifts for 20 days straight and then having just a few days off. That type of thing must have an impact on safety."

The reliance on anecdotal evidence of this kind is one of the main criticisms of the QMC report which said: "Often the discussion about shift rosters and lengths devolves into a debate about whether or not extended shifts and compressed work weeks are safe. A better question to ask is: 'Is the old 8-hour backward rotating shift roster safe?' or even 'Does a compressed work week, based on extended shifts offer any change in health and safety outcomes?'... Too often the debate is dominated by 'anecdotal' evidence and one or two publicised incidents which are then generalised to try to portray the overall situation."

A coal mine manager in central Queensland said the decision took away the union's mandate of restricting work time. He said longer shifts gave employees the opportunity to work three days at 12 hours a day which have them greater choice in where they lived and in managing lifestyle choices. The report makes the point that compressed work weeks lead to improved shorter working weeks and improved recuperation between work stints.

Other key conclusions are:

- The management of shiftwork in the Queensland mining industry should not be by regulation.

- The management of shiftwork should be treated on a site-by-site basis due to the complexities and individuality of each work site.

- Management of shiftwork and rostering should be treated as part of the overall risk management process in operating a mine.

- The QDME document should be released as a reference document only and only after a fuller data set supported by actual experience and findings in the Australian mining industry is added.

The CFMEU had only just received the report when contacted for comment by ILN but said it hoped to present a more thorough response at a Safety conference in Townsville in August. A union spokesman said a cursory glance at the QMC report suggested it had overlooked the fact that recent improvements in safety were linked to numerous other factors such as better equipment, which were not mentioned. The spokesman also pointed to the flawed nature of using LTI's as an indication of trends. LTI's do not always provide an accurate mirror of reality he said.