Ex-employee blows whistle on Spotless

By Andrew Birch, 8 April 2011

Poor work practices and management by Spotless Group Ltd in BHP Billiton’s Mount Keith mine site kitchen are creating an ‘accident waiting to happen’, according to ex-employee Deborah Palmer.

Ms Palmer, 39, of Gosnells, yesterday told of her treatment by catering and cleaning company Spotless, during her employment as a kitchen hand.

She claims that a shoulder injury, which she sustained at work on the 14^th of February this year, was the result of repetitive strain injury (RSI) and could have been avoided had BHP’s company policy been adhered to.

“When we had our orientation, we were told all about BHP’s strict occupational health and safety guidelines, and told that we had to rotate through several work stations on the hour throughout our shift so that we didn’t get RSI,” Ms Palmer said.

She claims that when she reported the injury to her Spotless supervisors, she was told to lie to anyone else who asked about the rotation system.

“They said to just pretend that I had been rotated, even though all of us regularly spent up to four hours on each station because we were so short staffed.”

She said she refused to lie to a BHP official and Spotless senior manager when asked if she had been rotated on the day of her injury.

She told them she had not been rotated and this had caused her hand to swell up to such an extent that the site medic had to cut a ring from one of her fingers.

“They both thanked me for my honesty and the Spotless manager said he couldn’t believe that anybody had had that kind of experience while working for his company, and that he would look into it.”

Spotless supervisors denied any wrong doing, and Ms Palmer said she was informed that nothing further could be done as it was “my word against theirs”.

When contacted, a Spotless representative acknowledged the situation, but declined to comment as she said this would be in breach of the Privacy Act

The representative said the allegations were being taken seriously and the matter would be fully investigated.

 “While there are no official laws relating to RSI, companies should still undergo risk assessment for their workplace to minimise the likelihood of injury,” a Work Safe representative said.

“The recommendation (to employers) is that if employees are carrying out a repetitive task for an extended period of time, they be given a five minute break when needed, or switch to a different task after a specified amount of time,” she said.

“Mining kitchens usually have quite strict procedures in place because they are so busy and tasks can be physically demanding.”

Ms Palmer is awaiting the approval of a workers compensation claim for medical fees and loss of income.