Sick of School and Twenty Five Years Later

Written by: Mapule Thinane & Robyn Spalding
Featuring: Richard Cooke

Richard Cooke was sick of school in 1980 and applied for an apprenticeship with Comalco. He didn’t get it so he decided to go to New Zealand for two months. Whilst he was there he received a telegram from Comalco offering him a position. Of course, he returned straight away and began his Apprenticeship as a Fitter and Turner.

11 months after completing his Apprenticeship, Richard moved into a Process Operator role. He was in this role for 18 months and then went back to his trade for five years. In that time a new computer system was installed and he became a Maintenance Planner in the Garage where he scheduled the work for about 12 people.

Having gained Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training, Richard is now a Safety and Training Officer in the Services MRU, which involves managing all Apprentices. He really enjoys working with the Apprentices and looking after the logistics, getting them to TAFE and making sure everything is right for them. Richard gets a great deal of personal satisfaction seeing the Apprentices succeed and win awards.

During his years at Comalco, Richard has seen significant safety changes, particularly in technology. He has seen a change in the emphasis on the safety culture at work and the reinforcing of people continuing to work safely and think about safety all the time. There was a big change in 1997 when they went from wet scrubbing to dry scrubbing which is better for the environment. With the introduction of a range of different technologies there has been a large reduction in injuries. Twenty-five years ago, it was accepted that people get hurt.

In 1980, Potline 1 was still operational and the second half of Potline 4 was still being built. Employees didn’t wear respirators and wore paper masks only if they felt like it. Five years ago, there were seventy LTIs (Lost Time Injuries) and last year and the year before there were six, so that shows how much more emphasis there now is on safety.This reduction shows the culture change within the site. People now think of the safety issues before doing a job instead of reacting after something has happened. Twenty-five years ago, there was also one person, one job and no cross skilling. Now it is more common to overlap with employees more skilled in a range of areas.

Comalco has had significant changes in management style since Richard has worked there. There is no ‘them and us’ culture now. This is even reflected in the clothing everyone wears. In the old days the staff wore grey and wages wore blue. The General Manager now wears the same style and colour of clothes as anyone else who works there. This is symbolic of the transparent nature of the management. There is openness between management and other employees and everyone has the same vision.

Richard enthusiastically emphasised the culture of safety that has emerged over the past years. This culture does not only stay within Comalco but extends to employees taking the same ethos into their own homes, such as, mowing the lawns and using a chainsaw with the appropriate safety equipment. Richard follows the idea of being hurt at works means being hurt at home and vice versa. This also extends to the contractors engaged at the plant.

Comalco encourages social bonding within the different teams with a number of social occasions, which include the families, being organised. Every September there is a Service Dinner where milestones of ten, fifteen, twenty (and beyond) years of service are recognised. After twenty-five years’ service, employees join the 25 Year Club and are invited to this celebration annually. The CEBO picnic at the end of the year is a highlight on the social calendar and Richard can never get his children out of the pool!