“Stopping the spread” at Oaky Creek Coal

Over 2 months ago, we created and enacted our response plan to COVID-19. This response plan centred around five key pillars.

Education of our Workforce

Information on COVID-19 (What do we really mean by “increased hygiene” and the requirements; What is social distancing and how this helps?). These simple facts and more were distributed to all workers via take-home packs, on our intranet and displayed in highly visible locations on-site. We also actively urged our people to access our Employee Assistance Program for support if needed.

Increased Hygiene Practices

We increased the hygiene requirements for workers, such as increased hand washing dispensers and sanitisers, all persons showering and having clean attire on before entering the mess facilities, additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and increased cleaning procedures for equipment, including mine transports were all introduced.

Social Distancing (including Travel Restrictions)

Through physical separation of key personnel; minimising group sizes at start of shift briefings, crib facilities, transportation (light vehicles and mine transports); minimised face-to-face meetings and training; postponing any non-essential large group meetings or functions and removing chairs and furniture to adhere to the ‘one person per 4 square metres’ requirements. Shift start and finish times have been staggered in some areas and personal demarcation zones have been marked out for pre-start briefings.

 Travel Restrictions and greater control when travel is required have been implemented. State and Federal Government travel restrictions and quarantine requirements are being observed; non-essential work travel has been postponed or cancelled; a charter flight service from Brisbane to Emerald has been introduced for workers that normally commute via commercial flights (and this service is using social distancing on flights); we’ve increased the number of buses used for transportation to sites and as many employees as possible are working from home (including local residents).

Pre and Post Diagnosis Protocol and Temperature Screening

Workers must complete a mandatory self-assessment and temperature check before starting their roster; mandatory temperature checks of all personnel prior to boarding transport; mandatory self-declaration forms to be completed by anyone entering the site; and any worker presenting with cold or flu-like symptoms is directed to self-quarantine immediately and seek medical advice where they are then assessed.

Communication with our Workforce and the Community

Information packs for employees to take home to their families; the Tieri.com.au website now includes a COVID-19 hub; ongoing communication with the local community groups including the Tieri Community Reference Group, local councils and local businesses; and maintaining our community investment grant support programs under both the Glencore and Oaky Creek Coal Stakeholder Community Engagement Plans.

The early introduction of these measures has so far proven to be successful in keeping COVID-19 at bay and we are grateful to all our employees for how they have adapted and the role they have played.