Lost Miners: response from BHP & Rio Tinto

The Feed asked BHP to respond to our story. It is printed below in full.

BHP
RESPONSE FROM BHP BILTON

Residential, drive-in-drive-out or fly-in-fly-out workforce all have a role to play in the resources industry in generating wealth for the Queensland economy. Across BHP Billiton’s 10 operating mines in Central Queensland, the overwhelming majority of our 10,000 employees and contractors (90 per cent) live locally or commute from the CQ coast communities of Mackay, Whitsunday and the Rockhampton region. Only two of our mines, Daunia and Caval Ridge, are FIFO operations, with both operating on a 7 days on/7 days off lifestyle roster.

Caval Ridge and Daunia Mines currently employ approximately 245 people from Cairns and 700 from Ipswich, Logan, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. The workforces are extremely diverse, with over 200 females, 32 Indigenous people and over 50 per cent who are new to the mining industry. Both sites have many interaction points with the local community, with almost 1,000 local contractor employees accessing the mine for work-related activities over the last year alone.

The health and safety of all BHP Billiton employees is critically important. This includes their mental well-being. As a business, we want to continue to help remove the stigma of mental health and arm our employees and managers with the skills they need to better identify when someone requires additional support.

We have a number of services in place that all of our employees can access including confidential 24hr counselling services for employees and families, in addition to development programs for line managers to help them better support their team members. Online resources for FIFO employees and their families are also available, providing updates on what is happening across our sites and outlining where support is available if needed.

RESPONSE FROM RIO TINTO

Rio Tinto appreciates that Peter and Anita have shared with us some very personal and emotional experiences. We have listened and worked to improve the way we respond to the death of an employee or contractor working at one of our operations. 

“We have identified opportunities to improve communication with impacted families, increase support for directly impacted team mates and leaders, and respectfully and appropriately manage the location where a worker death occurs. We have updated our standards and procedures to ensure these improvements are applied consistently across our business.

“Rio Tinto has a range of programmes in place to promote positive mental health and well-being for all employees and their families, and especially those who work on a FIFO basis or live in remote areas.  

“We provide education, training and a range of support programs to promote positive mental health and well-being. We also provide recreational facilities to encourage physical health, and provide communications technology to help employees stay connected with family and friends. 

“Rio Tinto is working with mental health experts, community organisations and other stakeholders to continue looking for opportunities to improve the mental health and wellbeing of our employees, their families and the wider community.“

 


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