Murrin Murrin Hand and Finger Injury Prevention Initiative
In the mining industry, workers use their hands and fingers for a countless number of tasks. As a result, hand and finger injuries are one of the most common types of injuries for miners and account for around 50% of recordable injuries within the Glencore nickel assets.
After a consistent long-term downward trend in hand and finger injuries at our Murrin Murrin operation, there was a spike of these types of injuries in the first quarter of 2018. In response, our team identified ten primary hand and finger hazards from a detailed analysis of the injury register and related incident investigations.
Our team developed a Hand and Finger Injury Prevention Initiative launched at the site in April 2018.
- Over 1,300 employees and contractors have participated in a Hand and Finger Safety Training Workshop to increase hazard identification and cover the underlying principles of hazard control. We added the workshop to the mandatory training path for all employees and contractors.
- A Hand and Finger Safety Prompt, introduced to improve hazard identification and control measures, reinforces the information presented in the workshop. Additionally, we introduced a Crush Hazard Safety Prompt to specifically target crush hazards, identified as the most common cause of recordable injury at the site. In conjunction with the new Safety Prompts, we established a related Key Performance Indicator outlining the number of safety prompts required each quarter for each department, now used as a leading indicator for departmental safety reports.
- A quarterly Manual Handling Bulletin that has been in use at the site for several years was updated to include sprain, strain and hand and finger injuries and associated comparative data to continue the focus on eliminating such injuries.
Early results of the initiative have been encouraging, with total hand and finger injuries declining significantly and the site realised the best hand safety performance on record in the first half of 2019.