QUARRY MANAGERS ADVISORY PANEL – Part 2

Ron Kerr, CMPA Honorary CEO

Following is the transcript of Honorary CEO, Mr RonKerr’s speech at the IOQ Bendigo Conference, continued from Issue 18.

Knowledge is power, Power is position

We all know that when selling something or buying something –position generates profit. Clearly one of the reasons why our industry has been left in the dark ages is because we are not in the right position when it comes to educating our employees (By the dark ages I mean we still see crushing plants running without any guarding, non-existent dust control, and absolutely no commercial understanding of the costs associated with doing and staying in business in our industry).

Clearly as I move around, I am increasingly concerned about the aging workforce in many companies, the lack of true commitment by those representing employees’ reeducation, the portrayed negative attitude towards education by older employees, the lack of support by companies towards vocational development of their employees, and the limited understanding about the need for vocational training.

The lack of understanding of the wealth that can be generated by training both employers and employees, the revitalisation of the company’s work ethos, and in turn the company’s bottom line have not been clearly marketed. One could even ponder the concept that with the acceleration of the obligation being placed upon our industry that its major representatives (the ‘Big 3’) and government fail to understand and properly assess the needs to have prepared the workforce through education in advance of the changes that are being forced upon us. All too often I am told, “It’s too hard – I don’t enjoy my work – I used to love what I did”. These comments I feel are putting a picture in front of us of a workforce which are losing control of their duties.

One would have to question whether even now you would engage an employee in the old way. That is – he came to the gate looking for work and was recognised as a hard worker, and was engaged. Clearly our obligations today place such compliance requirements upon the employment selection process that it could take up to 10 weeks to even approve a person for their first three-month trial period. I feel we are being forced to only employ those persons who present low risk. To put it in terms that we all understand – if the employee does the crime, the employer will do the time. This is an unacceptable culture.

With this pressure, the members of the CMPA (who are mostly family businesses), saw it was imperative to firmly grasp hold of the obligation of educating so that it built dignity, and until we see otherwise, it will remain so. This is the concept of collectively increasing the industry’s intellectual skill base.

Employees have a right to be supported with a vocational training program which is nationally accredited and of quality and substance. Employers desperately need more help to ensure that their businesses remain commercial, safe, and without risk to the community.

The CMPA understands that the certification and auditing of RTOs, course content, relevancy to tasks, and employee/regulator/supplier involvement are all part of the package.

What we have seen to date with some businesses attempting to address their training obligations is either disappointing or lacking understanding of what is truly required. (Note there is evidence of persons achieving Certificate III in exceptionally short time frames). We have concerns on this matter and have registered those with our minister and OTTE, and actions are being undertaken as a result.

In summary of the Statement of Purpose, and its linkage to this evening’s presentation, the CMPA is representing its Members to the best of its ability and will always be willing to work with others to further expand and improve its end objectives on the continuous improvement through education, training, and other activities.

On a few other matters, the first being responsibilities, I thought it may be worth mentioning this evening some interesting developments pertaining to the officers liability as being covered under the OHSA Review, in that there seems to be a recommendation that ‘Low level managers’, ‘OHS Managers’, ‘Middle Managers’, and ‘Senior Managers’ will be defined within the revised Act. This will clearly focus both owners and their managers more closely upon their liabilities.

The second matter being the future role of the quarry manager. I would like to read you the present part of the Act that we are required to comply to:

Part 4 of the EIDA 2003 – Quarry Manager (Point 38 – Manager must be appointed)
‘2. A person must not operate a quarry unless the person has appointed a quarry manager to operate the quarry who is a competent person.
3.For purpose of sub-section 2:
a. a competent person is a person who the holder of a work Authority has acquired with the appropriate and adequate knowledge and skills through training, experience, or both, to be able to safely and competently control and manage the extractive industry operation
b. Has adequate knowledge of this Act and the regulations and any other relevant legislation
c. Is authorised to carry out or supervise the carrying out of any activity on the land in the Work Plan that is regulated by or under any Act’

Our industry at the moment, through the subtleties of the DPI, is being asked to contemplate the concept of the creation of a new Quarry Managers Advisory Panel to replace that which the DPI managed and is near sun setting.

People in this room must understand that a NCPR of our Act resulted in the sun setting of the change. The review, amongst other things, identified on 22 October 2001, in section 9.1 (p50):

“The criteria restricts competition by affecting the ability of a person or a business to enter the market and increasing the cost of production by incurring compliance costs”

People must also understand that the government sees that it is not their role to verify the competency of quarry managers, but the responsibility of quarry owners as their employers to ensure that managers have the appropriate skills and expertise to carry out this role.

One must carefully contemplate why the board was removed by looking at these above findings before rushing headlong into another arrangement which adds no value and flies in the face of the findings.

The CMPA would welcome the inclusion of an exemption within the OHSA which exonerated employer’s duties pertaining to the appointment of managers by presenting them to a board.

Otherwise one would have to ask the question, when you still need to ensure competence, would you want to present an employee to a board with no power?

Could I now please direct your attention back to Certificate II? It is with great pride that we stand here with many people in this room who have achieved the unit “Work Safely” from the Extractive Industries Training Package. For those who are interested, in excess of 450 persons have fully passed this unit to date.

The CMPA through the introduction of this course to employees and managers saw the absolute futility of trying to explain to people the aspects of entry into education i.e. competency, certifications, RTO, RPL, and all the other acronyms that ensures that this thing called DEST retains its absolute
supremacy.

We approached the ESTB crying out for help on this matter, as well as both our own and the Education Minister to assist the industry through the provision of an Industry Liaison Agent to try to explain education to those within our industry. All of this has fallen upon deaf ears – I go back to the start – Are people really interested in education?

The CMPA subsequently commenced an Education News Supplement based on the suggestion of one of its Members, Tim Bird. This supplement clearly and simply puts forward information to owners, managers, and employees, to support their company’s commitment to education.

The CMPA, with respect to course content in Certificate II has been painstakingly working through it’s next objectives which are ‘Conduct Local Risk Control’ and ‘Basic Cutting and Welding’ over the last 12 months.

Those present this evening must understand that the ‘Basic Cutting and Welding’ alone has the interest of approximately 60 people, that the documents to support the competency are in excess of 400 pages, and that prior to mass printing, a pilot program will be held to confirm the resource material’s relevance and that at a latter point this could be used as a referral source by company’s employees in the workplace.

In conclusion to this evening’s discussions, I would like to make the following final point:

This is the absolute crux (inequality) of the matter of the concept of competency based training – if the employer because they are too far away or too small does not hold a skill level or document support for the units of training to be passed on, how then can a new employee be assessed as competent by an RTO on that site unless there is the resource training materials to underpin them?

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