The Duties of Employees

Duties of Employees

This is what the W.A. Government expects from the people that work on the mine sites in their state.

10. Duties of employees

(1) An employee at a mine must take reasonable care —

(a) to ensure his or her own safety and health at work; and

(b) to avoid adversely affecting the safety or health of any other person through any act or omission at work.

(2) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), an employee contravenes that subsection if that employee —

(a) fails to comply, so far as the employee is reasonably able, with instructions given by that employee’s employer or the manager of the mine for the employee’s own safety or health or for the safety or health of other persons; or

(b) fails to use such protective clothing and equipment as is provided, or provided for, by the employer as mentioned in section 9(1)(d) in a manner in which the employee has been properly instructed to use it; or

(c) misuses or damages any equipment provided in the interests of safety or health; or

(d) being an underground worker, fails on leaving work at the end of a shift to report to the person in immediate authority over that employee and, where practicable, the person relieving that employee, on the state of that part of the works where the employee has been working.

(3) An employee must cooperate with his or her employer and the manager of the mine in the carrying out by those persons of the obligations imposed on those persons under this Act.

Source: WA Mining Act 1994

 

What does this mean to you?

It means that you as the employee:

Must follow supervisors’ instructions unless you feel it is dangerous to do so

Must not do anything to endanger your own personal safety

Must not do anything to endanger anyone else’s safety

Must use all personal protective equipment or P.P.E. supplied

Can’t deliberately damage any P.P.E. or safety equipment

Must talk to the worker coming onto the shift to replace yourself (also known as your X shift) about the state of the equipment, its location, any hazards and any other information you may feel necessary to pass onto your X shift . If you can’t talk to your X shift then you need to pass the information onto the shift boss on duty.

Communication is the key to safety when working in a mine. The more you know about the job the safer you will perform that job.