Safety...it’s up to all of us

Pictured: Managing director Bill Champion meets with Queensland contrating company representatives to discuss safety.

Rio Tinto Coal Australia has put out the call to its contractor agencies to collaborate with us and help achieve our goal of zero injuries.

Managing director Bill Champion has held meetings in New South Wales and Queensland with the principals and senior management of more than 80 contractor firms, calling on them to work with Rio Tinto Coal Australia to help drive down safety incidents.

“This is about teamwork. We all need to share the same goal and work together if we are going to improve our safety performance and culture,” Bill said.

“Some weeks ago I invited all of our contracting agencies to meet with me, chief operating officer Darren Yeates, general manager - Health Safety and Environment Rory Gordon, and each of our general managers operations to seek ways to gather input on improving contractor safety at our sites at all times.

“The fact is we regard the safety of all people that work on our sites as a core value in what we do, and this applies equally to contractor employees as it does to our own employees.’

Many of the contracting companies are already demonstrating strong safety leadership, which translates into safety performance. At the recent meetings, a number of contracting companies were issued with letters of recognition for their significant safety efforts. Letters were presented to:

Robson Civil Projects – Bengalla
Nightforce Security – Hunter Valley Operations
Downer EDI Engineering – Mount Thorley Warkworth
Wisely Asset Management - Blair Athol Mine
Mastermyne – Kestrel Mine
United Group - Resources - Hail Creek Mine