114
In the mill, apart
from working as electricians, Italians were employed as carpenters,
mechanics and boilermakers to undertake repairs. Shifts in the mill fluctuated between two
and three depending on the amount of ore mined. Mill workers earned a fixed wage — unlike
the miners who were paid according to their productivity. By 1963 the basic wage
for mill
workers was £14/14/1 [$29.40] and a district allowance of £2/5/- [$4.50].
53
Yet the millers had
to endure much dustier conditions. Tullio Rodigari recalls that he had to work overtime to
earn good money. It was common to work two shifts because people took ‘sickies’ after
payday to play two up. Arturo Della Maddalena considered he earned a good salary in the
mill only once he was appointed supervisor.
Occupational Health and Safety
The “CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT” also contained the company’s regulations regarding
work attire. The worker was to supply these, but with the approval of ABA Ltd management.
Workers had also to agree to be responsible for all safety clothing
and equipment issued by
the Company. They would be refused employment for failure to follow the regulations. In
reality refusal of employment was rarely, if ever, enforced.
54
Photographs reveal that the only safety equipment the company provided was a
safety helmet and respirators. The company compelled “no man… to wear a respirator, but
no check is made on the man who wishes to wear one. The issue is free on demand without
question”.
55
Dr Jim McNulty, the Chest Physician and Mines Medical Officer from 1957 until
the 1960s, reported that the high volumes of dust in the mill and in the mine clogged the
respirator within minutes.
56
The high temperatures made it impossible to wear the respirators
for any great length of time. Giacomo Bevacqua remembers being given a mask but “It was
too hot. There was no ventilation. You had to breathe with full lungs all the time... Little
53
Motley Rice Plaintiff’s Exhibit no. 10554: The ABA Story (1963), Chapter 12.
54
National Archives of Australia, Perth: Department of Labour and National Service Western Australia.
File no. 65/1153. Subject: Industrial Conditions Australian Blue Asbestos Pty. Ltd. Wittenoom.
55
Motley Rice Plaintiff’s Exhibit 10133: Correspondence from ABA Limited to the Western Australian
Employers Federation, 14 February 1957.
56
The dust nuisance was mentioned regularly as a concern, but was sometimes played down in the
reports of the Mines Inspectors during their visits to Wittenoom throughout the 1940s, 1950s and
1960s. The Motley Rice Plaintiffs’ Exhibits contain Mines Inspectors’ reports on the conditions and
dust counts during these decades.
115
oxygen. Imagine how much dust you swallow”?
57
Antonio Casella
recalls workers being
asked to wear masks, but also recalls them saying: “This is nonsense! I’m not going to wear
this! In fact, I don’t think I wore it” (see figure 42). While some of the workers realised that
“the dust was no good”, workers like Antonio Casella did not realise “how severe it was; no
one ever explained to us about asbestos-related diseases”.
58
This is a telling comment, since
Antonio Casella, unlike most migrant workers, spoke English fluently.
The working conditions were such that while
the men wore their helmets, many
worked bare-chested or in singlets because of the heat which caused the workers to sweat
profusely, with dirt and fibre attaching to the men’s skin (see figure 43). Surviving
workers
and the miners’ widows recall the deep gnashes to the men’s backs, suffered
as a result of
the constant brushing up against the jagged roof line of the stopes. Giacomo Bevacqua
recalled, “the roof was all stones. If you touch, they split you in half”.
59
Just as the wounds
were
on the verge of healing, workers would inadvertently brush against the roof causing
them to open up and bleed. In any case the scarring remained. There was no equipment to
protect knees and shins as the men remained bent over during their eight hour shift. There
are conflicting accounts of the stope height — between 31 and 42 inches — among workers
and Mines Inspectors. The photograph of one young Italian revealed his ingenuity, with his
use of cricket pads to protect his knees and shins (see figure 41).
57
Interview with Giacomo Bevacqua, Perth, November 2008.
58
Interview conducted by Susana Iuliano with Antonio Casella, Perth, 2005.
59
Interview with Giacomo Bevacqua, Perth, November 2008.
