Extensive research has shown that comfortable and private accommodation, as well as a range of leisure activities and amenities, not only enhances job satisfaction and worker retention, but also goes a long way in improving the mental health of workers and their productivity.
Designing mining camps to reflect inclusivity, connectivity, and positive workplace culture – tailored through organisational strategies to understand employees’ needs – is a crucial factor in in ensuring the wellbeing of mining workers.
An important factor in inclusive camp design is ensuring that workers – particularly women – feel safe and secure outside of work hours.
Women face a variety of challenges on mine sites, including higher stress levels, inadequate lodging and amenities, and pervasive sexual harassment.
Actions mining companies can take to improve safety for women include safety surveys directly asking for input; creating women’s groups; adapting areas such as women-only workout facilities, well-lit shared areas and open spaces for socialising; increasing security presence; introducing safety tools such as panic buttons or localised personal alarms; and advancing training and resources.
A new study led by architectural sociologist Dr Jack Tooley, Senior Lecturer of Spatial Design at Monash University, is investigating how FIFO camp designs affect worker productivity, morale, presenteeism, and retention.
Dr Tooley stated that the research would broadly examine the role of architecture in workers’ mental health and represents a landmark study on how mining camps can be designed to promote wellbeing across Australia.
He said: “Much of the existing discussion and research around mining camps has focused broadly on wellbeing, often resulting in managerial interventions like games nights or changes to food, rather than looking at how the built environment itself directly contributes to the wellbeing of occupants.
“Simple alterations that you would expect not to significantly affect budgets – like the provision of shelves and open storage to allow occupants to display and reflect identity in their room, or avoiding dead-end pathways to avoid feelings of being trapped – can have a huge impact on staff retention, presenteeism, and morale.
“This will provide statistical evidence that targeted investment in specific aspects of camp design can deliver measurable returns.” Another research team from the University of Queensland has also highlighted the importance of accommodation as a strategy to increase worker wellbeing and retention.
The research was conducted with FIFO workers primarily in Western Australia, as well as in Queensland and South Australia, and it confirmed that workers highly value privacy and personal space.
The five most common factors of accommodation that impacted quality of life noted by respondents were: whether it provided enough privacy (91 per cent), provided enough security (89 per cent), was comfortable and well-equipped (85 per cent), was quiet and enabled a good rest (81 per cent), and allowed relaxation during time off (81 per cent).
Priority amenities highlighted by over 75 per cent of respondents included having an ensuite (89 per cent), air-conditioning (88 per cent), the same room for each swing (81 per cent), and a mess area (76 per cent).
The researchers explained that being away from family and friends was perhaps the biggest challenge for FIFO workers.
They added: “We would expect all FIFO workers to value private time to contact family and friends to the same extent as our sample.”
In another interesting paper published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Assistant Professor Omar Manky from Esan University in Peru argued that the way mining companies have transformed their organisation of worker housing arrangements has affected workers’ ability to unionise.
Prof Manky said: “From northern Canada to southern Chile, from the Peruvian Andes to the Australian desert, the traditional mining town model is being replaced by long-distance commuting [FIFO] – a regime that transports urban workers to the mine and provides food and lodging at the work site for a fixed number of days.
“[FIFO work] spatially separates the sites of mineral production from the sites of social reproduction, thereby undermining predominantly workplace-based forms of social relations and labour organising.
“This shift, in turn, has pushed unions to reconfigure their strategies; rather than carrying out extensive and frequent strikes in the workplace, they instead focus their energies on coalition building beyond the confines of the mining camp.”
