The British quarry industry has traditionally had a poor health and safety record. However, through an effective partnership approach with all key stakeholders including HSE, this is no longer the case.
The Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee (QNJAC) is a tripartite committee (HSE, employers and employees) at which stakeholders in the British quarry industry are able to discuss priorities and develop solutions. The HSE’s definition of a quarry includes all surface mining: i.e. opencast coal, industrial minerals, kaolin, ball clay, brick clay, barytes, gypsum, silica sands, fluorspar, china stone, slate, fullers’ earth, limestone, dolomite, basalt, and aggregates. Thus defined, the industry consists of some 20,000 direct employees, 20,000 contractors and daily 20,000 lorry drivers.
In June 2000, the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee (QNJAC) adopted the “Hard Target”, an initiative aimed at halving the number of reportable accidents in the industry by 2005. The quarry industry surpassed its ‘Hard Target’ by reducing all reportable injuries by 52% in five years.
In an event held on 29 November 2005 to celebrate the achievement of the Hard Target, HSC Commissioner, Hugh Robertson, congratulated all those who had helped reach the target. He said:
"Well done to everybody in the industry who has risen to the challenge of the ‘Hard Target’- to cut reportable injuries by 50% by 2005. The quarry industry has shown that a competent management and a genuinely involved workforce will deliver targets making it an exemplar to other traditional heavy industries."
Under this initiative, a balanced set of strategic objectives contributed to the achievement of the target:
Major education and training initiatives have been undertaken across the industry to improve competence and raise health and safety performance.
Key achievements under this objective include:
This refers to work to influence key groups such as Chief Executive Officers and employee representatives, and to ensure that effective control measures are in place at high-risk plant, such as vehicles and conveyors, and processes, such as explosives and geotechnics.
Key achievements under this objective include:
Various publicity initiatives have been taken forward on quarry health and safety, with a programme of topic inspections in addition to HSE’s normal rigorous enforcement of appropriate standards. Articles in Quarry Fact File provided practical information in support of this programme.
Topics covered have included:
Following the success of the Hard Target Initiative, the next stage (2005-2010) was to achieve a further 50% reduction in injuries by 2010 with the ultimate aim of zero reportable injuries. Target Zero is based on the principles of working in partnership with all stakeholders who can make a difference. Partnership working is mutually beneficial to the organisations involved, and this together with the emphasis on achieving a fully competence assured industry enables the industry to become progressively more self-sustaining and self-regulating.
The overall objective of Target Zero is to achieve its goal of reducing injury and ill health incidence by creating a competence assured industry that:
The Quarries Regulations 1999 require that no person undertake any work in the quarry unless they are competent to do so (or are acquiring such competence through training and supervision). A lack of competence has shown itself in the historically poor accident and ill health history of the industry.
The Hard Target set in place a number of critical initiatives that have laid the foundation and proved the validity of concentrating on competence as an underpinning principle of good management. Not only health, safety and environmental management but business efficiency, quality and operational productivity are likely to be improved by increasing workforce competence.
The Quarries Regulations 1999 are workplace-based rather than employer-based, and therefore Target Zero includes contractors and hauliers who work on quarry sites, and that in turn will directly influence injury in other industries including construction, transportation and manufacture.
Under the provisions of the quarries legislation they are all treated as employees of the quarry operator:
Workforce participation and involvement depends on a competent, confident workforce, and improvements in health and safety management depend on a competent management.
In November 2005 senior representatives of the industry and its stakeholders were invited to recommit themselves on behalf of their organisations to achieving Target Zero. The event attracted commitments not only from quarry companies who signed up to the Hard Target at the original launch in 2000, but from a much broader range of industry stakeholders.
Speakers highlighted areas of activity which remain priorities if injury reduction is to be sustained. These include occupational ill health, workforce involvement, working effectively with contractors and hauliers, equipment design, gaining and supporting improvements in small and medium sized businesses, and maintaining emphasis on the competence of all who work in the quarry industry.
The industry achieved the 2010 target for injury reduction a year ahead of schedule, reducing reportable injuries to 155 in 2009 compared to a 2010 target of 157.
At Hillhead 2010 the industry pledged its support for the next phase of Target Zero by committing itself to reducing injuries by a further 15% year-on-year to 2015 compared to a 2010 baseline.
The quarrying industry has shown itself to be one of leaders in Great Britain for setting and delivering on harm reduction targets and its work on competency, worker involvement, creating healthier and safer workplaces and customising support for SMEs align closely to the HSE Strategy (see http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/).
Underpinning the success of this initiative, however, is the leadership shown by top management and trade associations, which is key to delivering the HSE Strategy, coupled with the commitment shown by employees and their representatives in striving for continuous improvement in health and safety.
Judith Hackitt, who gave the keynote address at the recommitment event, said:
"It is with pleasure that I offer my support to the newest phase of the UK quarries’ already successful initiative to improve health and safety at its sites. For health and safety to be improved further, industry needs to take the lead in identifying its own priorities based on the risk profile of the industry. You have already come a long way with an impressive 76% reduction in injuries since the Hard Target initiative began in 2000 but reaching the new goals will require even more hard work, determination and development of new approaches. It is also right that organisations in this sector recognise their responsibility to work together to share best practice and lessons learned. This is the level of sustained commitment that will be required to achieve the new target in every individual company."
To assist in delivering its goal, the Target Zero initiative has eight working groups dealing with:
Guidance, including information sheets, toolkits and toolbox talks may be found at http://www.safequarry.com/HotTopic.aspx
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