Premier has achieved certification to the Australian and New Zealand Standard 4801 (AS/NZS 4801:2001) for its Occupational Health and Safety Management System. A Safety Management system will allow Premier to meet the requirements of the proposed changes to State and National Safety and Health legislation.
Training in health and safety skills development includes:
• Training personnel in Basic Workplace First Aid, and maintaining the skills of Occupational First Aiders. Our emergency response equipment and systems are routinely checked and tested
• Maintaining an emergency response team of volunteers drawn from the various areas of the operations. Training is focused on dealing with serious incidents involving first aid for injuries and medical emergencies, fire fighting, hazardous materials incidents, vehicle accidents and search and rescue situations.
• Providing accredited training to our elected Safety and Health Representatives. Their delivery of safety and health information is aided through presentation skills training to improve employee involvement and behaviours in safety programs.
In addition to certification AS/NZS 4801:2001 for the Occupational Health and Safety Management System, other key improvements in health and safety processes include:
• Improving Contractor Management with documented procedures for service providers and visitor access, and a new site entry logging system
• Holding Crew Information Sessions approximately every six weeks, typically focussing on issues related to health and safety.
Premier Coal continued to be an active member of the Industry Road Safety Alliance, which brings together all the major road users within the Collie and Boddington areas in a cooperative partnership to:
• Make a positive impact in reducing road trauma by working together to provide road safety education to our workforce and greater community
• Provide a coordinated approach to road safety initiatives
• Participate in the development of improvements to the road networks.
In 2010 our Industry Road Safety Alliance won the People Category of the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy Safety and Health Innovation Awards.
Making an award-winning safety system better
Premier Coal has used its SafeMAP safety system, which won awards in 2000 and 2001, to guide its safety performance. However, improving safety management is a continuous theme at Premier Coal, and in 2009/10 some important steps were taken to continue to keep safety top of mind.
New safety accreditation
In December 2009, Premier Coal achieved certification to the Australian New Zealand standard AS/NZS 4801:2001. The comprehensive accreditation process requires a high level of detailed documentation and evidence that employees are aware of their responsibilities and involved in the identification of risks and work practices to eliminate those risks. AS/NZS 4801:2001 accreditation is a major achievement that will improve mine safety and align our safety systems to the proposed changes for national consistency in Safety & Health legislation and the National Mine Safety Framework.
Gold Safe Way Award
After a series of self-audits, random desk-audits and supporting documentation, Premier Coal earned a Gold Award in the2010 IFAP/CGU Safe Way Awards. These awards recognise organisations who achieve a high level of safety standards, and can demonstrate commitment to safety through excellence in training, established systems and procedures and achievement of safety objectives.
