Some FIFO workers pay high price for riches The Millers believe WAs estimated 67,000 FIFO workers should be able to choose more family-friendly rosters if they want to and that companies should have to record and be accountable for mental health incidences. After two decades as a fly-in fly-out (FIFO) worker, Peter Miller had a good handle on the lifestyle. He knew the long hours, the blokey environment, the hot, hard work and the large pay checks. When his then 23-year-old stepson Rhys Connor started FIFO work, he wasnt worried at first. But in July last year, at the age of 25 and after only a brief period of depression, Rhys committed suicide at a Pilbara mine site in Western Australia. Rhys is one of several FIFO workers in WA who committed suicide in the past 18 months, prompting a Western Australian parliamentary inquiry into the mental health impacts of FIFO work arrangements. The inquiry began in August and is still going. A WA coroners report presented to the inquiry in September found that from 2008 to 2013, 24 WA workers committed suicide, seven of whom were explicitly named as FIFO workers, while the others were in occupations suggestive of FIFO work such as miners and drillers. Many, particularly those in the construction stage of projects, often working for contractors, are offered only one roster: four weeks on, one week off. As part of a growing push for more family-friendly rosters, many FIFO workers on longer rosters around WA have asked to take a pay cut in exchange for fewer weeks away. Continue reading >>> bit.ly/1w7JE57
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 20:07:33 +0000
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