May 30 2018 MRE North Goonyella. ERZC Inspections and Reports
The extracts are from the Inspection of 31st August 2017 as well as 30 May 2018.
There are several issues tied together.
31st August
Firstly the creation of a “Window” shift with a substantial overlapping of the two 12 hour production shifts has created a situation where the ERZC’s are seemingly now unable to comply with Regulation 370
307 ERZ controller must carry out regular periodic inspections of explosion risk zones
(2) Before carrying out a regular periodic inspection, the ERZ controller must—
(a) read the record of the latest regular periodic inspection findings; and
(b) acknowledge, in writing, on the record, that the ERZ controller has read the record.
The ERZC is not the one who has designed the shift system, nor for the organizing of a Statutory Inspection Risk Assessment which should have occurred under Change Management when the “Window Shift” system was being proposed.
If a proper risk assessment had of taken place I am sure that this problem would have been identified as it is a Legal “Must Happen” under Regulation 370.
It is up to the SSE and Underground Mine Manager to organize such Risk Assessments.
The potential issues with ERZC’s being unable to view the previous Inspection or it seems speak to the off going ERZC are extremely obvious.
Having “Outbye” Deputies perform Inspections of Production Districts and then have the Results of the Inspection included as part of “Outbye” Report is a long way from ideal, best practice, logical or even legal.
It is also hard to reconcile Mr Romanski’s comments about his “Instruction” ERZC’s being present full time in the District when activities like Drilling in the Return are occurring with what the ERZC stated earlier about the Face Inspection just being part of the Districts he is responsible for.
I note he only stated it and does not seem to have produced any proof of his “Instruction”
WORKING IN RETURN
12th July 2017
I was informed by Mr Romanski that whenever there were drilling activities happening in the return there was an ERZ Controller present in the Zone at all times as it was classified by the mine as interfering with roof or sides. He stated there had been occasions when they could not drill because they did not have an ERZ Controller available.
Mr Romanski stated that he had issued an instruction that the only times persons could work in the area outside of the ventilated area as shown previously was during shifts when the development panels were not producing or between shifts when there is no production in the ventilation panels
In the Inspection of the 30th there are 2 issues.
Firstly the display of ERZC Inspection Reports so they could be read by Coal Mine Workers prior to going underground and how ERZC Inspection Boards are filled out and updated.
We raised the availability of statutory inspection reports for coal mine workers to be able to access the reports prior to going underground and a sign off box for process Superintendents.
We recommend that the Mine consider establishing a system where the reports are made available in segregated boxes or otherwise such that the reports are grouped together by inspection district and are easily available for coal mine workers to access.
Is this how low the Industry has dropped.
Inspectors have to Recommend Mine to group Inspection Reports by District so workers can read them before going underground.
Lastly the ERZC Inspection Boards. I will just leave it with the Inspectors comments
The inspection board when updated had been edited, as opposed to re-written, with a blue-pen as opposed to the original, black. This can lead to errors being carried forward officials are recommended to re-write each time they complete the board.
STATUTORY REPORT SIGN OFF AND DISPLAY
31st August 2017
I asked who the ERZ Controller was and was told Mr Cole had taken over from the “window Deputy”. I noted that the window Deputy had not completed an inspection nor had he countersigned the Night Shift ERZ Controller’s Stat Report. I later had a discussion with this ERZ Controller who explained to me that an inspection was not due as per the Mines Inspection SOP and that he covered his inspection of the face area on his Outbye Inspection report which was kept elsewhere.
I reminded the ERZ Controller that, when he takes over an inspection District, he must read and countersign the previous ERZ Controller’s inspection report. The ERZ Controller explained that when he started that morning the Night Shift ERZ Controller had not completed writing his report.
Recommend that the mine conduct a review of the Inspection SOP to ensure it adequately covers the requirements for inspection requirements for the ERZ Controllers in the window between night shift and day shift when taking control of the activities in production districts.
Provide a response to this recommendation by 4 October 2017
Review of ERZ Controller’s Inspection SOP
30 May 2018
Inspector Marlborough raised concerns over the availability for statutory reports to be viewed by coal mine workers prior to proceeding underground. A discussion was held with Mr Romanski and Mr Fitzpatrick regarding displaying the reports in a way which would facilitate coal mine workers being able to view the reports prior to going underground.
A recommendation was made for the Mine to review their system. Inspector Marlborough also suggested that the Mine consider including a box on the statutory inspection reports for the Process Superintendents, or their delegates, to sign to show that they had read the report. This is important to ensure that the process managers read the inspection reports to identify defects or hazards raised by the ERZ Controllers.
We raised the availability of statutory inspection reports for coal mine workers to be able to access the reports prior to going underground and a sign off box for process Superintendents.
We recommend that the Mine consider establishing a system where the reports are made available in segregated boxes or otherwise such that the reports are grouped together by inspection district and are easily available for coal mine workers to access.
The inspection board when updated had been edited, as opposed to re-written, with a blue-pen as opposed to the original, black. This can lead to errors being carried forward officials are recommended to re-write each time they complete the board.
