FIFO toll continues to mount
IMAGINE being flown to a remote location far from your friends and family and housed in a spartan three-by-three metre room. You can’t leave your campsite without permission, and your every move is watched by surveillance cameras.
No, it’s not the latest cruel reality TV show — it’s a fact of life for many fly-in, fly-out (FIFO), and drive-in, drive out (DIDO) workers in Australia’s mining industry. And it’s a lifestyle that’s leading to skyrocketing levels of depression, anxiety and stress for workers.
The toll of FIFO work has been implicated in alarming numbers of suicides amongst workers in the industry: last month saw another tragic death, this time of an AMWU member in Western Australia who was employed by contractor Goodline at Roy Hill, where a 28-day on, seven-day off roster operates.
The suicides of nine FIFO workers who took their lives in a 12-month period led a WA parliamentary committee to investigate the mental health impact of FIFO work, and the committee filed its report last month.
Unions welcome recommendations
The final report makes a number of recommendations strongly supported by the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and UnionsWA. In a joint statement they congratulated the committee, supporting recommendations such as:
• Encouraging family and worker friendly rosters such as even time or 8 days on 6 days off;
• Developing a FIFO Code of Practice which emphasises worker access to reliable communications facilities, including the internet;
• Minimising or eliminating ‘motelling’ — where workers are given a different room each shift;
• Expanding the duty of care provisions under occupational health and safety legislation to cover employer-provided accommodation.
Steve McCartney, State Secretary of the AMWU said: “We welcome this bipartisan inquiry report, which has rightly recommended moving away from long rosters such as four weeks on and one week off towards more family and worker friendly rosters such as even time or eight days on six days off.
“Unions pushed for this inquiry and now we expect the Liberal government to take these recommendations seriously. Letting this vital report gather dust is not an option for Colin Barnett.”
The mental and physical health tolls of commuting mining work have also been the subject of inquiries in Queensland and in Federal Parliament, where a parliamentary inquiry led by former independent MP Tony Windsor tabled a report back in 2013.
Despite only just responding to the Windsor report last month, the Abbott government has rejected most of the report’s 21 recommendations.
CFMEU National President Tony Maher said the Abbott government’s measly response shows just how callously it is turning its back on regional communities and FIFO workers.
“Central Queensland is being smashed by unrestrained FIFO, and governments who ignore the problem will feel the wrath of voters.”
FIFO quick facts
• A decade ago there were just over 1500 beds for temporary workers near the Central Queensland mining town of Moranbah. Today the town’s population of 9,000 is overshadowed by almost 10,000 beds in the area.
• In the Bowen Basin alone there are currently 69 camps and approximately 32,000 beds.
• Commuting workers often work 12 hour days, which can grow to 14 hours with commuting time between the mine and the camp.
• Nearly a third of commuting mine workers travel five or more hours between home and work, a CFMEU survey found.
• Companies are rewarded by large tax breaks if they use camps and commuting workers — they can avoid fringe benefits tax, and flights and accommodation can be written off as costs of production.
Source: CFMEU Mining and Energy
Maher says the Windsor report offered a clear path to mitigate the health impacts of FIFO for workers, as well as ways to reverse the devastating effects on regional townships, where workers and businesses have been locked out of jobs and service provision by companies.
“At the moment we have the absurd situation where skilled and experienced mine workers living in local communities and regional centres are locked out of jobs because mining companies insist 100% of their employees must fly in from the big cities.
“Once thriving communities are now hurting as whole families are forced to pack up and move out of town to find jobs, and local businesses are shutting down.”
Anecdotally, the CFMEU has even heard of some employees living in towns near mines taking incredible steps like driving to a city such as Brisbane, only to be flown back to the mining campsite (where they aren’t allowed to see their nearby families).
After their roster is over, the company flies them back to Brisbane, where they make their own way home.
“The Government needs to stop pandering to the mining companies and start paying attention to circumstances of workers and regional communities on the ground,” said Mr Maher.
Queensland inquiry hears of pressures
A separate public inquiry by the Queensland Government into the impact of fly-in, fly-out mining work has been told of the pressures commuting work puts on families and communities.
Steve Smyth from the CFMEU told the ABC’s The World Today program that locals living in Moranbah, south-west of Mackay, aren’t happy they can’t get work at two of the state’s newest coal mines, Caval Ridge and Daunia in north Queensland — owned by BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, they rely on a 100% FIFO workforce.
“People that live in that town can’t apply for a job at Caval Ridge,” Smyth said. “And in fact, people [from Moranbah] will drive past that mine to go to other mines in the areas.”
Victoria Murray, the wife of a FIFO worker who runs a support group for other women whose partners work away, told The World Today she saw people with “depression and anxiety, loneliness, a struggling to manage parental roles, feeling overwhelmed, a lack of communication skills with their partners”.
The Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association “has told the Queensland inquiry compulsory FIFO mining can create significant problems for workers’ families, particularly their children, who are at increased risk of behavioural problems, and for workers’ partners, whose isolation can lead to mental health issues.
The CFMEU is campaigning for choice for all commuting workers, who should have the opportunity to move their families to the regions where they work, as well as on behalf of locals, who shouldn’t be cut out of employment opportunities in their regions.
[caption id=”attachment_30226" align=”aligncenter” width=”600"]
Mineworkers aboard a flight to northern Western Australia.[/caption]
Employer ‘forced’ workers to drive five hours a day
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one commuting worker in central Queensland said his employer refused to allow workers to live in the nearby town: this meant he had a 2.5 hour drive to and from his home at the beginning and end of each new set of shifts.
‘Richard’ (not his real name) said he’d rather live in a share house in the town near the mine so he could avoid the commute, and so he could have a permanent bed. At the camp “you never get the same room twice”, he said.
“They won’t agree to you staying in local houses because they can’t control people who live in them. It’s all about control. They own you from when you leave in the morning to travel to work…and then while you are staying in the camp. It’s like they are keeping tabs on you.”
Richard said after six days of 14-hour shifts, workers at his current camp don’t get access to their room for a final rest before driving home, creating a significant safety issue for fatigued workers.
While his campsite has some good recreational facilities, Richard says the set times for the evening meal — straight after the day shift — made exercising an unattractive option. “You’re not going to exercise after dinner.”
And the constant surveillance at the site also means “it’s hard to relax and feel at home when you can’t even have a beer without security around.”
