capacity flow of

Work is killing me 113,600 litres of water

a minute. There was no
grille over the mouth of
Going to work can be a chore, a bore or enriching and the pipe.
fulfilling. What it shouldn’t be is deadly. Yet
thousands of people go to work each day and don’t get Justice Peterson of the
out alive. Industrial Court said
For some it’s because a terrorist flies a plane into a BHP “did have in place
building, for others it’s a failure of safety procedures a serious and relatively
or because a disgruntled client plants a bomb. complex system which
was aimed at ensuring
Industrial accidents kill 3000 people a yearin Australia the safety of relevant
and injure 80,000. persons.” He said if
anyone had asked the
What makes for a dangerous workplace? Does the obvious question of
culture of an organisation make some workplaces more simultaneous operation
deadly than others? Or is it, as Gary Bracks of the of the pump with
Employers Federation suggests, a matter of human diving operations the
frailty? fatality would have
been avoided.
Traditionally heavy industries like mining and
engineering were considered more dangerous than He rejected the
white collar occupations. But terrorism is changing argument that
that. Even in Sydney workers have been killed as a Malcolm’s death was
result of terrorism.
caused by human error
and concluded it was
Malcolm Phillips was a skilled, experienced diver. He
because of a failure in
was killed at the BHP plant in Newcastle when he was
the system. BHP was
inspecting a cooling-water pumphouse, which some
fined $80,000 in the
one switched on. He was one of three qualified divers
Industrial Court and
on the job.
paid WorkCover a
3000 people are killed and further $40,000. The
80,000 are injured in workplace judge took into account
accidents in Australia each BHP’s 16 prior
year. convictions when
making the order.

The pumphouse extracted water for use in BHP’s Malcolm should never
steelmaking operations. It was drawn by electrically- have died and if some
driven high-speed pumps from concrete lined bays one, anyone at BHP
which were fed with tidal river water through a grille. had asked an obvious
The bays contained a rotating mechanically-operated question he wouldn’t
screen designed to filter solids from the water supplied have. Fines remind
to the pump. employers to follow
safety procedures but
Malcolm was under water inspecting the floor of the Malcom won’t come
bay when the pump was switched on and he was back to his family.
drawn into the inlet pipe. The pump had a rated
MAUREEN SHELLEY © 2008