Under the umbrella of the NSW Mine Safety Advisory Council, the NSW mining and extractives industry has developed a comprehensive World-leading OHS Culture Action Plan to address the industry's safety and health priorities over the next few years. The key components of this action plan include:

• building an OHS culture capacity throughout the industry
• enabling sites to benchmark themselves
• fostering the connecting of systems
• marketing what a world-leading OHS culture might look like.

The NSW Mine Safety Advisory Council (MSAC) is a partnership of industry stakeholders, including representatives from the industry, unions and the regulator. It has the strategic objective of achieving world-leading OHS through the development of changes in the health and safety culture of the NSW mining and extractives industry. MSAC is focussed on addressing the key areas of:

• cultural change
• safety incentive schemes
• the disconnect between systems and practices
• contemporary health issues, including musculoskeletal disorders and fatigue.

Within MSAC, industry, unions and NSW Government agencies are working closely together to achieve world-leading health and safety throughout the NSW mining and extractives industry.

In November 2008, a CEO OHS culture summit, comprising leaders from industry, unions and government agencies, agreed to a comprehensive vision for the industry. This vision sees an industry with zero harm, a demonstrated commitment by everyone to OHS, complete competency at all levels, best practice consultation, no tension between productivity and safety, all OHS implementation is achievable fair and just, an effective enforcement policy, clear accountabilities and responsibilities for everyone, collaboration, and no disconnect between systems and practices.

The World-Leading OHS Culture Action Plan is MSACs key tool for delivering against the CEO Summits vision. It will build the capacity of the NSW mining and extractives industry, including employers, unions, workers, contractors and the regulator. Action Plan initiatives to assist in building this capacity include:

• Lead Indicators and Targeted Industry Assistance Project
• Associated Non-Technical Skills Project
• Marketing a World-Leading OHS Culture.

The development of a set of leading indicators targeting OHS systems, safe practice and culture will measure improvement within the industry as it progresses towards achieving its vision and closing the disconnect. Through the development of self-assessment tools, sites will be able to measure the performance of their OHS management systems and OHS cultures, and enable benchmarking against their industry peers.

Targeted assistance by I&I NSW's Industry Assistance Unit will raise awareness and build capacity. Areas targeted for improvement include systems practice, interaction between people, safety culture and the individuals capacity to participate in safety and health. The programs will assist in connecting systems with practice through fostering improved working relationships and increased stakeholder capacity.

Associated Non-Technical Skills (ANTS) are the cognitive, social and personal resource skills that complement technical skills and contribute to safe and efficient task performance. The project will deliver a strategy to promote and integrate ANTS, preparing discussion papers on their usefulness and the need for change management, as well as engaging the industry Competence Boards in their approach to competency assessment. The project will target the key ANTS of situation awareness, leadership, teamwork, communication, and decision making.

The implementation of a wide-ranging communication and marketing approach to fostering a World-leading OHS Culture will build and awareness within and a commitment from all who work in the NSW mining and extractives industry. A specific initiative will be to market OHS beyond the workplace, including a specific focus on mining communities.

The outcomes from these programs will contribute to an improved and more sustainable industry OHS culture, through more effective consultation, meaningful participation by all stakeholders in OHS improvement and management, efficient supervision and an OHS culture where safe practice is innate and authentic at all levels. These actions, by all stakeholders, will be seen as an essential investment in the NSW mining and extractives Industry as it strive towards a World-Leading OHS Culture.

MSAC has established the World-leading OHS Culture Management Working Party to act as the steering group to implement the Action Plan overseen by MSAC.

Culture Change Project – creating the NSW mining industry of the future

Nine mine sites in NSW will have the opportunity to help create the NSW mining industry of the future.

The Mine Safety Advisory Council (MSAC) is sponsoring a culture change project with these sites to develop the tools and programs that will be used to achieve the industry’s vision of World-leading OHS culture in the NSW mining and extractives industry. The project builds on the outcomes of the CEO OHS Culture Change Summit in November 2008 that included a vision for OHS culture in the NSW mining and extractive industry in 10 years' time. At that Summit, industry, unions and Government committed NSW to achieving a world-leading performance in health and safety.

As a first step to achieve this goal, MSAC has commissioned Shaw Idea Pty Ltd to develop and conduct a pilot program to develop an industry approach to assessing, building and monitoring progress in OHS cultural maturity. Shaw Idea Pty Ltd will work with nine sites in NSW to ensure that the program is effective and usable.

The culture change project will use the CEO OHS Culture Summit Vision to establish the current OHS culture of the industry. The next step will result in self-assessment tools to enable mines to assess their own OHS culture and performance on key elements of an OHS management system that will identify areas that may be improved.

Ultimately the project will deliver a self-sustaining method for achieving and monitoring continuous improvement in OHS culture and practice to the NSW mining industry.

The project will also build the capacity of industry champions to foster continued OHS culture improvement within the industry and enable benchmarking into the future.

The consultancy project will commence in April 2010 and it is anticipated that the pilot interventions will begin in July 2010.

For further information please contact Project Manager Heather Jackson on (02) 4931 6491 or email Heather.Jackson@industry.nsw.gov.au