“I’d see staff always complain about particular questions of safety,” stated a former member of the well being, security and safety division, who labored at Eagle for 4 years. “And it was simply pushed off on the backburner. ‘Oh, we’ll get round to it. You realize, we don’t have components, we don’t have time.’”
The lax security tradition could have contributed to Victoria’s troublesome place. With operations at Eagle suspended after the June 24 heap leach spill and landslide, the corporate faces C$232.5 million in debt funds, and no money movement. The incident tanked Victoria’s share worth by greater than 85% over the last week of June. The one-asset firm now has a market cap of C$54.1 million.
Victoria has issued three information releases because the accident. It has not responded to a number of requests for remark. The exact reason behind the accident is being investigated.
“There was at all times an excuse why we couldn’t repair something or make it safer,” the previous security staffer stated. “It was at all times simply pushed again, you realize, manufacturing versus security.”
Avoiding insurance coverage claims
The employees agreed Victoria’s alleged security negligence stands out in its method in direction of Employees’ Compensation Board (WCB) claims.
When a employee was injured, the corporate was purported to report the incident to the WCB. However as an alternative of paying compensation prices, the employee could be stored on wages, instructed to remain dwelling and firm information wouldn’t present any accidents, the sources stated.
“We have been directed to ship them computer systems and provides them on-line coaching so they might keep at dwelling and keep on the payroll, which wouldn’t present any time loss,” the previous security division member stated.
The division holds lower than a dozen guards, supervisors, emergency response technicians and paramedics, however it misplaced 14 folks over three years from turnover.
“They have been simply fed up and moved onto completely different jobs,” he stated.
A heavy tools operator, who has labored at Victoria for greater than two years, however who was injured greater than a yr in the past, stated the corporate avoids WCB claims to restrict funds and to maintain insurance coverage charges from growing. The main points of his accidents are being withheld as a result of he’s nonetheless employed by Victoria.
“I received injured there and so they do pay you to maintain you from WCB, however just for six or seven months, after which they stated they don’t have the (know-how) to accommodate you working from dwelling, like administrative work or coaching work,” he stated. “I’ve been preventing with the WCB and the corporate as a result of they didn’t give me any assist by any means.”
‘They went to lunch’
Final month’s accident was the second landslide to happen at Eagle this yr, because the Yukon authorities confirmed in a information briefing in late June. The incident in January concerned a smaller failure than the one in June and was on a stockpile that wasn’t being leached. In heap operations, ore pads are utilized with an answer containing cyanide that separates gold from ore.
The tools operator confirmed what one other operator had instructed The Northern Miner in an interview final week in regards to the aftermath of the January accident. Manufacturing continued after the slope failure though by regulation a security stand-down, or pause in operations, should comply with such occasions.
“We drove down from the highest of the pad (in direction of) the lunchroom,” he stated. “Earlier than I received out of the truck, I requested (the mine supervisor) ‘is that this a security stand-down or is that this a daily lunch?’ He stated it’s a daily lunch. I stated, ‘I don’t agree with that.’”
One other operator, who wasn’t engaged on the pad on the time, stated there was no pause in operations.
“It’s true that the lock-out process didn’t occur there, everybody simply went to lunch,” he stated.
Drug and alcohol use
Whereas consuming alcohol is prohibited at Eagle, one of many operators and the protection employee stated consuming and drug use have been tolerated.
“Within the rubbish can I noticed an entire bunch of beer cans and bottles and a pair bottles of whiskey on the camp by the incinerator,” the operator stated. “You’re not allowed to have booze there. It’s a dry camp.”
Drug-testing solely occurred if there have been metal-on-metal accidents involving equipment colliding with different machines, the protection division member stated. Baggage and clothes weren’t checked when workers got here onto the positioning, and there have been no additional investigations after housekeepers gave safety workers drug paraphernalia they discovered within the camp buildings.
“Except they have been caught and examined, it was mainly open vary,” the former security employee stated. “A cocaine-addicted man got here to me and stated, ‘That is Disneyland for an addict like me.’ We simply turned a blind eye to it as a result of no one needed to dig into the deeper downside of the right way to management it.”