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June 13, 2024 15 mins

Muswellbrook woman Nicky Redgrove is braving freezing temps to stage a daily protest vigil outside the gates of BHP's Mt Arthur mine,  as she fights for improved work safety.  It's a messy legal fight, as Nicky deals with chronic pain after a freak accident on the job. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeart Upper Hunter.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
The figure that they have offered me was literally a
kick in the guts. It just felt Not only did
it feel wrong, but it was insulting.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello, I'm Darren KATRUPI. In this episode, we share a
real David vers Goliath battle in our local mining scene,
except in this case it's a woman taking on the
giant of the big Australian BHP. Nicki Redgrove was in
a job she'd loved at the mad Arthur coal Mine.
Employed by a contractor. She'd been working as a big

(00:33):
dump truck driver for two years. In twenty nineteen, Nicki
was struck by a large mass of mud and rocks
that fell from the top of an eight meter high
dump truck. Ever since, Nicki has lived with chronic pain
and is unable to use her right arm and shoulder,
and there's the psychological impact of whether she'll ever be
able to get back to something of a normal life.

(00:56):
This week, Nicki has staged alone protest vigil outside the
mind Gate every morning and afternoon, four hours at a time.
I caught up with Nikki as she stood in some
very cold tempts this week to understand why she's had
to take such drastic action.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm doing this to be heard, be seen, and for
people to realize that one little person can make a difference.
Hopefully this might help me, but it might help the
next person. And yeah, just holding people accountable.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Can you take us back to that day, explain what
actually happened.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I was operating a lebed truck. A mud slash mud
rock fell off the top of my truck, hit me
on the front of my hard hat, which luckily I
have my head looking up, so it'd hit the front
of my hard hat, snapped my neck back and then bounced,
scratched down my face and bounced onto my shoulder consecutively.

(01:53):
And yeah, I was refiling a truck at a truck station.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
The truck was empty at the time, so this was
like a rogue bit of material.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah. Yeah, it was either stuck up by mud or
hung up on the side of the vehicle or on
the top gunner whale of the vehicle.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
For those who don't know the mining industry, you're not
talking about just a chuck everyone passes on the road
each day. You're talking about a thing very high.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, seven like depending which trucks are, but they're between
seven and a half and eight and a half meters high,
so it's a great distance to fall.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Obviously, that didn't tickle what No, what what injuries did
you sistem?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, it snapped my neck back, so I have damage
in my neck, I have damage in my lower back.
Then it's come down and shattered. On the shoulder, I've
had several like I've had surgeries and several procedures done
on the shoulder, and I've now left with permanent, permanent
disability in that shoulder and permanent nerve damage, which is
probably the worst thing. And through going through this for

(03:00):
the last five over five years, I have PTSD, I
have a post accident depression and anxiety. And now I
have what's called social anxiety because I have a few
of people coming up and touching me. Because nerve pain
is excruciatingly painful, and people don't realize that even the

(03:21):
slightest touch really hurts and takes hours to recover from.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
So you're wearing a brace at the moment for the
injured arm. Essentially, that's what you're holding. Is there's something
particularly wrong at the moment or is that something all
the time?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
No, I don't wear I don't wear my I don't
wear this sling all the time. It's when my arm
is down, my hands kind of backwards, so I have
what they called paris I think it's pronounced parathesia. So
my hand swells up and goes purple and really aches
and throbs when it's down. So I put it up

(03:57):
in the sling just to take some of the pressure
off the arm and just to release some of that pressure.
But it in itself courses injury other not injuries, but
issues because obviously it's around my neck, and my neck
was injured, so weariness thing all the time would hurt
hurt myself, hurt my neck. So I randomly put it
on and off all day long just to alleviate which

(04:20):
one of the pain I want to put up with
at the time.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Since the accident, you've been on work as compart. How
many doctors have you seen?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh? Literally, I'd say it has to be around the
fifty mark. It feels like a hundred, but I'd say
it's at least around the fifty mark.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
And what do they say, But they're.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
All, as far as I'm aware, they're all saying the
same thing. There's not much else they can do medically.
They are talking about shoulder replacements. Now they're talking about
are they We're talking first of all about Shulder reconstruction,
now they're talking shoulder replacement. It's we don't know the answer.

(05:00):
And even if they do do that surgery, there's nothing
that's going to take away the nerve pain. So that's
something that I'm going to live with for the rest
of my life.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Nikki describes her life since the incident as hell. She
says she just wants what she deserves everyday life.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
It's it's potentially I have one arm I am. I'm
right handed, and it is my right shoulder and that's affected,
so that deems that right hand out of action. I
can use my hand a little bit more when that's
up in the swing when the weight's taken off it.
But affect of my life is I'm a proud grandmar
and I've always been very proud to bear grammar and

(05:38):
having your grandkids not want to come up to you
and hug you, because depending on what day or what
time of day, as to what level of pain you're in,
they can bump you or touch you, and you instantly
and I don't mean to, but you just instantly yell
at them, so they kind of like stand back and
look at me and like, are you all right today?

(06:00):
And that's not something that children should be having to
deal with. And that affects me, It affects my husband
just day to day living around the house. My husband
and I used to do a lot of things together.
We love mode of bike riding, and now that's not
something I can do. I can't get on the bike

(06:21):
with him. If I do, it's I have to put
on a shoulder brace. Then I have to put on
a full body sling which holds my arm to my body,
and I have to and the maximum I can go
would be to Denman. The vibrations and the bouncing, just
it's not worth the pain. As much as I love
going on the bike with my husband, it's just not

(06:43):
worth the pain.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Nikki, what are you hoping to achieve with VHb by
essentially standing here as a live billboard.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
I just want somebody to be held accountable. I just
feel like I've been swept under the rug, as I said,
and I want I'm not a greedy person. I'm not
asking for the world. I'm just asking for a reasonable,
decent compensation to this has got to ask me this

(07:13):
injuries and the rest of my life, and the figure
that they have offered me was literally a kick in
the guts. It just felt not only did it feel wrong,
but it was insulting. And I'm not, by any means

(07:34):
a greedy person. I've got a great husband who supports me,
but it's not It's not his fault. He didn't hurt.
I got hurt going to work, and to be left
out here in the gold is how I feel. That
it's wrong. It's wrong, and apparently it's a freak accident

(07:56):
and there's not much else I can do about that,
and that also is wrong. I went to work, fit,
healthy and happy, and I come home broken, And now
over five years later, I'm even more broken. They've my demeanor,
everything about me is broken. I used to be a happy,

(08:16):
happy person. But standing here, I have to admit, standing
here and all the encouragement that I'm receiving of Eveone,
all the BIPs and all the waves, and all the
encouragement that has helped lift me back up again to
be in control of my life, because everybody else has
been in control of my last for this life, for
this last five years. By me standing here doing this.

(08:38):
It's putting me back in control of my life. It's
probably gonna upset quite a few people. I don't doubt it,
but I need to do this for me.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
You talk about compensation offer. What you're talking about is
not becoming a rich person. You're talking about the practicalities
of paying for things like me, medication that you have
to take now for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, medication for the rest of my life. Nerve damage.
If anybody who knows, if you've ever had a toothache,
nerve damage as soon as he gets cold, it hurts
really badly. So I just I'd like to be able
to put my heater on of a nighttime so I
can actually get some sleep, and to be able to
put my spar on, which is the only thing that
penetrates and gets the heat into my shoulder. Be able

(09:25):
to afford the cost of the power bill that would
I'm not a greedy I just want. I suppose I
want what's owed to me, and I think that I've
done the right thing.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Tell me about how much medication you take.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
It's thirteen tablets today. Yeah, for somebody who wouldn't even
take a pen at all. I'm now on a handful
of medication.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
It's clear Nikki is endeavoring to make a statement EhP
about her own situation, but she's also doing it for
her co workers, who she says, deserve to feel safe
from the job. Since I've been here with you, talking
to you as you hold up the sign, actually can
you tell us what the sign says?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
That sign says injured worker left out in the cold,
and actually I'm standing here in the cold, so it
has a double meaning. I just feel like I've been
brushed aside, pushed under the carpet. I just I don't
think that anybody's taken me seriously, or I think I've

(10:37):
just been a number. And that was a real shock
to me because I loved my job and I loved Yeah,
I just I was good at my job.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well, what sort of reaction are you getting, certainly from me,
in the time I've been standing here with you, you're
getting a lot of horn bits and waves and a
lot of support, it would seem.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, everyone has been fantastic, even people driving past, not
even going to work here, but just people driving past
of biphorns and truck drivers of bip horns and in
support and yelled out the window and just encouragement that
don't give up, keep going, just keep getting heard.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
This is iHeart Upper Hunter. More from Nikki Redgrove soon,
including her call for safety standards to be improved at
the Mount half of mine. I heart Upper Hunter, I
Heart Apper Hunter. Welcome back. I'm Darren KATRUPI and back

(11:42):
to our conversation with Nikki Redgrove. She's staging a loan
protest outside the front gates of BHP's Mount Arthur coal
mine at Marselbrook as she seeks acknowledgment from management that
a freak accident in her job as a dump truck
driver five years ago has left her in chronic pain
and ruggling to regain any semblance of a normal life.

(12:03):
After such an incident, it seems reasonable to ask about
safety at the site. Is there room for improvement when
it comes to the safety of big dumbruck drivers at
the mine.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
While not privy to whether what happened on the mind
sight now, I don't know if anything policies or procedures
have changed. I would hope there was something put in
place to stop this from ever happening again. I do
realize it was a freak accident, but you go to
work fit, healthy and happy, you should have that right

(12:36):
to come home fit, healthy and happy. And I know
they say they say that, you know they want you
to come home safely, but it's not been demonstrated to me,
and it's not I haven't No one's reached out to
me and check to see how I'm going. And this
has been a very long process. Obviously my mental health

(12:56):
has struggled a bit with this been such a long process,
and then constant pain, like chronic pain, really wears you down.
So but for my employer at the time to only
contact me for a month and then I haven't heard
anything from them since my month after the accident, and
then not to hear from anybody on site. Obviously I

(13:21):
do hear from my friends. They've been great support. But yeah,
it's just it's about along road and unfortunately there's no
end to it.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
And we should just clarify at the time you were
employed on a contract arrangement, not by PHP, the owner
of them, but by a subcontracting company.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, yes, by subcontracting company.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Well, we can't get into the status of the case
for legal reasons. Negotiations are ongoing. Obviously, we can't go
into all the details of the case as far as negotiations.
That's in the hand of your lawyer. So where does
it stand at the moment.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, it's as I said, it's in the hands of
my lawyers. They're in doing discussions and I don't want
to say anything just on the grounds that obviously I
don't want to hinder or cause them to go bad
at me either, But I just this isn't this protest
that I'm doing isn't for anything else other than for

(14:26):
building me back up again and maybe making other people
aware that you see these people on site, they get injured,
and you never hear from them again, You'll never you
want to I want what happened to them, This is
what happens to them, and just make somebody look at
me and somebody be accountable for what happened to me.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Nikki Redgrove wants to be adequately compensated for her pain
and suffering to date, but she's also seeking compensation for
the potential loss of earnings over the next fourteen years
of her professional life. Both sides are deep in legal
to and throwing, and we did reach out to BHP
to seek a comment on where the case sits, but
at the time of recording this podcast we'd yet to

(15:11):
receive a response. We'll keep you updated. That's all for
now on iHeart Upper Hunter, proudly supported by the new
South Wales Government. I'm Darren Katrube. See you next time.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
iHeart Upper Hunter.
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