As the resources industry prepares to celebrate the annual St Barbara’s Festival, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) has urged the sector to ensure workplace safety remains its top priority.
Named after the patron saint of miners, the festival culminates on Saturday, December 5, in a parade of mining equipment down the main street of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Last night, the Miners Memorial provided a tribute to those resources sector workers who have lost their lives
CME Chief Executive Reg Howard-Smith said mining and energy companies have vastly improved workplace health and safety since the first gold was discovered in Western Australia more than 120 years ago.
Over the last decade, the unprecedented growth of the sector’s workforce has coincided with continuous improvement in safety and health outcomes.
Even as the resources sector innovates and evolves, the challenges and risks remain for our workforce. This makes it critical for industry to collaborate, share lessons learnt and remain focused on continuously improving and safety performance.
“The safety and health of our people is the absolute priority of the industry. There is no room for complacency and industry must remain vigilant in the prevention of incidents and injuries.” Mr Howard-Smith said.
“While the St Barbara Festival puts our industry on show, we need to remember there is nothing more important than ensuring the workers of our industry return home to their families once they finish work.”
Miners Promise, an independent not-for-profit organisation established to support resource sector employees, echoed the call to focus on safety.
“As a consequence of seeing the impact a workplace incident has on families we cannot underestimate the importance of ensuring we all focus on coming home safely at the end of the day,” general manager Wayne Martin said.
More information can be found at www.minerspromise.org.au
