Addressing the cultural complexity of OHS in the Australian mining industry 1 Christine Aickin a,1 , Andrea Shaw b , Verna Blewett c , Laurie Stiller d , Stephen Cox e a Workability Pty Ltd, 18 Pacific Street, Clovelly, NSW, Australia, 2031 b Shaw Idea Pty Ltd, 15 Fletcher Lane, Mt Egerton, Victoria, Australia,3352 c School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide SA, Australia 5095 d Beyond Words Pty Ltd, 2896 Oakey – Pittsworth Rd, Rossvale Queensland, Australia, 4356 e Stephen Cox Consulting Pty Ltd, 69 Whynot Street, West End, Queensland, Australia, Australia, 4101 Abstract. This paper summarises the findings of the site assessments of ten pilot mine sites involved in a project entitled, Creating a world-leading OHS culture in the NSW Mining Industry which was undertaken for the New South Wales Mine Safety Advisory Council (NSW MSAC). NSW MSAC was established in 1998 in NSW Australia and aims to increase the emphasis on safety and health within the mining industry by reviewing and analyzing safety performance, setting strategic directions, providing advice and developing policy recommendations. The project itself aimed to deliver a self-sustaining method for achieving and monitoring continuous improvement in OHS culture and practice to the NSW mining industry. The pilot sites involved in the project tested a set of self-assessment tools to enable mines to assess and improve their own OHS culture and performance on key elements of an OHS management system. The tools allowed examination of the current OHS culture of the sites. Sites then used a participative planning process to develop an improvement plan. This paper provides summary data only, without identifying the individual sites that were the source of the data. Keywords: OHS culture, mining, OHS management systems, participative planning. 1 Corresponding author, E-mail: aickin@workability.com.au 1. Introduction This paper provides a summary of what was found in the site assessments of OHS Culture at ten sites across the mining industry in NSW, Australia. It does not provide a representative picture of the industry as these sites volunteered to participate. The extent to which they exemplify the circumstances across the industry is unknown. The ten sites included one coal open cut, two coal underground, two metalliferous and two extractive clusters of mines (five mines in total). Over the ten sites quantitative data was collected from 656 people via questionnaire, qualitative data from approximately 250 people via individual and focus group interviews and results from participative systems assessments. 2. Methodology The methodology is based on the methods success- fully used in the Digging Deeper project [1] in Aus- tralia and the Changing Minds, Changing Mines pro- ject [2] in South Africa. The team included skilled interviewers and re- viewers of organisations who were capable of col- lecting the data, skilled data analysts and experts in the areas under research in the mining and other in- dustries in Australia and internationally. The collabo- ration of these individuals made it possible to suc- cessfully undertake the project. Data collection tools included a site health and safety culture survey and a site OHS systems and practice self-assessment tool. Work 41 (2012) 4453-4456 DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2012-0117-4453 IOS Press 4453 1051-9815/12/$27.50 © 2012 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved