Analyzing Health and Safety in the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Pike River Coal Mine tragedy, which occurred in New Zealand in 2010, resulting in the death of 29 miners due to a methane explosion. The report highlights the ineffective health and safety regulations in the New Zealand mining industry at the time, focusing on the flawed ventilation system, non-functioning gas sensors, and inadequate training. It discusses the principles of neutrality, confidentiality, and agreement to mediate occupational health hazards, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a neutral atmosphere through proper ventilation and gas management. The report also examines the underlying interests of stakeholders, particularly the conflict between profit maximization and employee safety, and recommends the strict implementation of health and safety legislation. Furthermore, it proposes the recruitment of trained health and safety officers and the suspension of mining operations in case of safety hazards. The report concludes that addressing the pitfalls in the Pike River Coal Mine and implementing the new health and safety regulations are crucial for preventing similar tragedies in the future. Desklib provides students access to similar solved assignments and resources.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Occupational Health and Safety
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy occurred in New Zealand on November’s South Island
in 2010. A methane explosion occurred in the West Coast of the Mine killing 29 men (New
Zealand History, 2019). The following occupational health and safety assignment is based on
proper understanding of the health and safety issues associated with the Pike River Coal Mine
Tragedy and understanding the principles of neutrality, confidentiality and agreement to
mediate such problems going forward. The assignment will also highlight the problems
underlying the employment relationships, role of employer in employee protection under the
context of the realistic legislation. At the end the assignment will proper recommendation in
mitigate such fatal accidents going forward from the perspective of the key stakeholders of
the Pike River Coal Mine.
Health and safety issues embedded in the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy
The Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy highlighted that New
Zealand’s regulation of health and safety issues in mining industry was in-effective. The
methane explosion in the Pike River Coal Mine highlights that mine lack good ventilation
system to prevent methane building up (New Zealand Legislation, 2019). According to Wang
et al. (2015), apart from the danger of falling coal and asphyxiation, coal mine also has threat
of methane gas explosion, which is continuously expelled from coal seams and is potentially
explosive when comes in contact with air. The analysis done by New Zealand History (2019)
highlighted that in coal mine, the standard plan is to install the ventilation fan on the top of
the shaft. However, due to operational difficulties, the fan was re-configured within the mine
at the bottom of the shaft. This deviation from the normal infrastructure and safety protocols
increased the vulnerability of explosion. The Royal Commission of Inquiry highlighted that
apart from flawed ventilation design, the gas sensors were also non-functioning along with

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improper drainage of the methane gas, leakage in the electrical wiring and improper hazard
warning and training of the employees (New Zealand History, 2019). The negligence was
also reflected in lack of proper ventilation officer. However, in New-Zealand, the
requirement is not mandatory unlike in Australia or other countries where ventilation officers
in coal mining industry is a statutory requirement (New Zealand History, 2019).
Principles of neutrality, confidentiality, the agreement to mediate occupational health
hazards in coal mine
The act of confidentiality in occupational health and safety measures in coalmine is
applicable under the health regulation. The Act of Confidentiality of medical record is
important for the employees working in the coalmine. According to this act, the nominated
medical adviser can any disclose the contents of the medical record to the coalmine worker
himself or the other person (by only taking consent from the coalmine worker) (Brune, 2013).
The neutrality assessment of the coalmine depends on the assessment of the methane
gas accumulation inside the coalmine. In order to ensure that a neutral atmosphere is
maintained within the coal mine, the accumulation of the methane gas inside the coalmine
must be minimised by employing proper degasification and ventilation system. Ventilation
can be done through underground mine drainage system or through ventilation air methane.
The proper ventilation of the methane or transformation of the methane into non-explosive
gas helps in the process of neutralization process of the coalmines (Kim et al., 2013).
The coal mine development agreement deals with agreement with the electric
organisation who conducts electrical wiring and electricity inside the coalmine. Under this
agreement, the authorized electrical organisation will ensure proper scrutiny of the wiring and
other electric sockets inside the coalmines in order to ensure occupational safety. If there are
gaps in their process of monthly or bi-annual scrutiny then as per the agreement, they will be

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penalised. This kind of legal obligation helps to ensure occupational safety in hazard prone
areas (New Zealand Legislation, 2019).
Underlying interests of all parties to the employment relationship problems
From the perspective of the stakeholder of the Pike River Coal Mine, it can be said
the main underlying interest of the owner of the coalmine is to fetch maximum amount of
benefit by extracting coals. However, financial interests must not be compromised to the
stake of employee’s life. In Pike River Coal Mine, the security and safety issues of the
workers of the coalmines are sacrificed leading to fatal loss of the human resource. In order
to manage the employment relationship problems and to uphold the safety quotient of the
employees, proper implementation of the clauses under the Health and Safety – Environment
Act (1992) is mandatory. Morantz (2013) stated that improving the working condition helps
to decrease the employment relationship problems. For Safe Mines-Safe Worker, the degree
of hazard under the mining operations must be studied. For example, quarries and alluvial
mining operations do not entail the same degree of hazard like coal mining. Moreover, in coal
mining, there are also differences like surface coal mining or underground coal mining. But
in case of Pike River Coal Mine, there are mismatch in the safety operations leading to fatal
accident (New Zealand Legislation, 2019). It is the duty of the stakeholders, government and
the industry to jointly develop the health and safety measures depending on the mining
conditions (Morantz, 2013).
Legislations for coal mining and additional recommendation
According to the new legislation (clause 27 – section 19ZP) of the coal mining
operation in New Zealand, each coal mine must recruit a mining industry health and safety
representatives in order to test the level of methane gas present inside the coalmines in order
to avoid risks of explosion (New Zealand Legislation, 2019). The analysis of the Pike River

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Coal Mine Tragedy highlighted that although coal was extracted, the Pike River Coal Mine
was still a start-up and the entire infrastructure was considerably behind the schedule. The
capital investment blew out of proportions due to the installation problems underlying
ventilation and the hydro-mining systems and other the machinery breakdowns. As a result,
the company needed to move back to its investors and other stakeholders for fetching more
funds (New Zealand History, 2019). Under this financial crisis, there was a gap in installation
of the proper ventilation system and quality control officers (dedicated ventilation officer) for
checking the methane levels within the mine leading to fatal accidents. Thus in order to
reduce such risk going forward, Moreover, the the clause 45(a) recommends appointment of a
non-voting member on the Mines Rescue Trust Board. The member of the trust board must
be appointed by the chief executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
(New Zealand Legislation, 2019). For proper operation of the mine a health and safety
representative is also important for making periodic quality checks. However, health and
safety representative is required to keep the information they accessed confidential under the
Act, with certain exceptions like information can be disclosed with consent, or if disclosure
isimportant to execute certain power or actions. Under the clause 27 (section 19ZD) the mine
health and safety representatives must be trained and competent before they start exercising
their power. From the perspective of stakeholder, it can be recommendedthe mining
operations must be suspected if any indications of health and safety hazard are noticed.
However, the health and safety officer must consult with other stakeholders like site senior
executive (SSE), in order to impose suspension (Osunmakinde, 2013).
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that there are several pitfall in
the Pike River Coal Mine, which lead to fatal accident. The new health and safety regulation

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proposes proper recruitment of the competent yet trained health and safety officer in order to
scrutinize the working condition inside the mine along with the function of the other safety
measures.

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References
Brune, J. F. (2013). The methane-air explosion hazard within coal mine gobs. SME
Transactions, 334, 376-390.
Kim, J., Maiti, A., Lin, L. C., Stolaroff, J. K., Smit, B., & Aines, R. D. (2013). New materials
for methane capture from dilute and medium-concentration sources. Nature
communications, 4, 1694.
Morantz, A. D. (2013). Coal Mine Safety: Do Unions Make a Difference?. ILR
Review, 66(1), 88-116.
New Zealand History.(2019). Pike River mine disaster. Access date: 6th March 2019.
Retrieved from: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/pike-river-mine-disaster
New Zealand Legislation. (2019). Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill. Access
date: 6th March 2019. Retrieved from:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2013/0130/7.0/DLM5302019.html
Osunmakinde, I. O. (2013). Towards safety from toxic gases in underground mines using
wireless sensor networks and ambient intelligence. International Journal of
Distributed Sensor Networks, 9(2), 159273.
Wang, K., Jiang, S., Ma, X., Wu, Z., Zhang, W., & Shao, H. (2015). Study of the destruction
of ventilation systems in coal mines due to gas explosions. Powder technology, 286,
401-411.