Courageous Leadership puts safety at mines first.

Safety first.

That slogan appears on a sign or banner at virtually every mine site in Canada.

For some, those can be hollow words in the mining industry's bottom-line world, where production is usually first priority.

A constantly preached mantra is "Every worker goes home safely at the end of each shift," but Don Ritz asks rhetorically: How important is that value within your organization?

Barrick Gold's vice-president of safety is spreading the word on a new philosophy for a safety program known as Courageous Leadership.

To Ritz, safety must be ingrained as part of an organization's cultural attitude, and it must start at the top.

If change is to come, management can't pay "passionate lip service", but must "walk the talk."

Ritz delivered that message to safety professionals who gathered in Sudbury April 25 at the Mining and Aggregates Safety and Health Association's (MASHA) annual conference, to listen through two days of discussion on what they can do to achieve an injury-free performance.

The former senior Syncrude Canada executive is an acknowledged industry leader in corporate law and risk management in creating the company's health and safety policies.

He says Courageous Leadership is driven by core "attitudinal" values of doing what's morally responsible and being willing to take a stand in order to achieve an injury-free job site.

"At the end of the day, it's about doing the right thing regardless of the consequences," says Ritz. "When people stand up for what's right, changes start occurring in organizations."

Corporate leaders must be the role models to change the culture of a company, he says.

"It's our own behaviour as leaders in the organization that sets the tone for the expectations."

Barrick managers must get out in the field at least 30 per cent of the time during the day.

"When we're out in the field, we understand things from a different perspective. It's critical to get out and be a role model of what an organization is expected to do."

Vern Baker, general manager of the Hemlo operations for Barrick Gold and Teck Cominco, admits he wasn't jumping for joy when another "corporate safety program" was handed down in 2004. But he's now a true believer in Courageous Leadership.

"To get better you have to feel a strong need personally to change," says Baker. "It happens so often after a fatality or a major accident, safety performance at that site will immediately improve ... for a time."

In 2004, Hemlo received a MASHA award for being the safest mine in Ontario, but management vowed to do better.

"We got an award for sending 35 people to the hospital," says Baker. "That's not good enough in our books."

To drive the message home, they installed an incentive system that rewards safe working.

If an operating group doesn't meet their production goals, but posts an outstanding safety record, they still earn two-thirds of their bonus.

"The system has to be in place that tells everybody that safety is as important as production," says Baker. "The message we send in that pay cheque every week is pretty credible."

They adopted a five-point safety system to define how supervisors and workers interact on health hazards, which includes a measurement of a supervisor's and general foreman's performance rated on a 0-100 scale.

At Hemlo, Baker says safety issues are addressed and acted upon with the same urgency as if it were a Ministry of Labour compliance order.

Even outside contractors are part of their safety team. Contractors' well-being are part of a company's responsibilities, Baker says.

"We can't run dual (safety) standards. If a contractor gets hurt it affects the incentive system."

Ritz says reaching a higher standard of creating an injury-free environment requires "extreme leaders" willing to make a day-to-day commitment to safety.

Baker agrees. "Your behaviour has to be consistent with what you've delivered to them verbally. When that happens it's fantastic, what people can do."

Management must also be willing to listen and make changes.

"People will come to you if they think you can make a difference."

Ritz says the mining industry isn't averse to dealing with technology changes to improve production performance, but it lags painstakingly behind on updating safety policies that are sometimes 40 to 50 years old.

"Unless we change our mind-set in how to look at safety today, our performance improvement is going to be mediocre at best."

www.teckcominco.com/contacts/hemlo.htm

By IAN ROSS 

Northern Ontario Business