Centre for Transformative Work Design

Our Director, Professor Sharon Parker was recently featured in Curtin University's The Future Of podcast to discuss issues affecting health, safety and well-being in the WA mining industry.

🎧 Listen to the full episode: http://curtin.edu/eh9gqf

📝 Our MARS Landmark Study Worker Survey is open now to all WA-based mining workers until 31 May: https://www.transformativeworkdesign.com/mars-landmark-study-worker-survey

Meet Professor Sharon Parker and Dr Patricia Todd. Professor Parker leads the Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety (MARS) Landmark Study, a research initiative supported by the Western Australian Government that aims to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of workers in the state's mining industry by exploring workplace issues. Meanwhile, Dr. Todd serves as the Chair of the Mining and Petroleum Advisory Committee.

Tune in as they discuss the challenges faced by workers in the mining industry and shed light on the importance of mental health awareness in the workplace.


Q1: What is the MARS Landmark Study and why do we need it?
Sharon: “It’s part of a whole-of-government that recognises two things: the importance of the mining sector for our economy, and the evidence that’s suggesting the need to look more deeply at some challenges in the sector. [For example] we did a study on mental health of FIFO workers in 2018, and that highlighted that about one third of FIFO workers were struggling with distress, so depression and anxiety – which is huge and was more than other sectors.“

Q2: Most of us have never worked in a FIFO situation … It is a community that is self-contained and if there is any cause for conflict or a scenario where somebody is feeling victimised, they often have to work alongside those people, and live with the perpetrators as well. That is a unique set of challenges for an industry to address, isn't it?
Patricia: “It is. And add to that that a very high proportion of the people working on mine sites on a contract basis, so they're not direct employees of the company, and many of those people are seeking permanent employment with the company. So that makes it even more difficult for them to speak up if they're not happy about something. That's another layer.”
Sharon: “And … if somebody is an alleged perpetrator of some of these serious offences, what can happen is they can be sacked from that particular company but then rehired by another contracting company – and so the person is still in the workplace. These are also some of the challenges that need to be looked at.”

To listen to the full episode, visit http://curtin.edu/vetk2s