Promoting of health and safety in mines

The paper discusses the effects of top management involvement in the health and safety matters in Mines. The challenge which faces the mining industry in its pursuit of improved safety is to achieve the same success in controlling the human induced risks as already achieved through engineering design. To do this, mine managers are required to consider and understand human behaviour and attitudes towards safety and try to motivate workers and change negative attitudes to develop a co-operating and safety minded workforce. Management of human factors is increasingly recognised as having a vital role in the control of accident risk. Tools useful for the management of safety, such as safety audit techniques, training to improve safety awareness and methods which can successfully be used to implement change, are suggested. The key requirement is to develop a safety policy and the necessary organisation and arrangements for safety at a senior level and the deliberate application of management skills to spread the awarness through the workforce.