Develop the risk management plan for your mining business. Include your overall general risk management plan. Then, focus on this specific scenario that could happen in your business. Use the questions posed as points to consider for your type of facility and the given situation. However, do not limit your thinking to the questions posed.

Resource links that may be helpful are:

• The National Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Violence
• Crisis Management
• Post Disaster Stress
• Workplace Violence

Scenario

Time 10:20 am, Wednesday morning

A foreman brings you the news that an employee has taken an unknown number of fellow workers as hostages. Apparently, his job performance had been steadily worsening, due to a combination of domestic problems and substance abuse. Yesterday, he was given a choice of seeking treatment for substance abuse or termination of employment. No one is sure if he currently is high or drunk, but he is heavily armed. He is an accomplished hunter.

Time 10:40 am

He has barricaded himself and his hostages in a rather inaccessible stockroom of the office building area. The room has a phone but no one has called out. Several people who know him had heard him make some irrational remarks the previous day. They feel that he will wait to be contacted.

Your employees are very upset and some are angry. Some feel this worker's situation should have been handled differently. As people check among themselves, there seems to be either four or five workers unaccounted for, including the individual's supervisor.

An angry worker confronts you accusing you that you caused the situation and with the question, "Do you know how many other people here feel exactly the same way that guy with the guns does?"

Furthermore, a coworker discovers a suspicious package near the back loading dock of the building? Since this is a mining operation, there are explosive devices on site.

Time 10:50 am

The first police car arrived around 10:30, but more continue to arrive. After consultations, the police request a SWAT team and a hostage negotiator. There has been no contact with the captor. The police want to know who should make the first contact.

Coworkers seem to confirm that four coworkers are missing. Discrete calls to the homes of those who might be hostages helps confirm that four are unaccounted for; the fifth had left work unexpectedly and has turned up at home.

Time 11:15 am

The SWAT team and the hostage negotiator arrive. The negotiator speaks with you and several of the captor's acquaintances. The negotiator makes the first phone call.

Time 11:30 am

Three news crews have arrived. They are looking for interviews.

The negotiator says that the captor is extremely angry and somewhat incoherent. The negotiator asked what the captor wanted, but did not receive any specific requests. The negotiator feels that the supervisor is in extreme danger.

Time 11:45 am

The captor's wife and brother arrive at the facility. The wife speaks with the press, indicating that she and her husband have separated, but she can't believe that he would hurt anyone. The brother is concerned that the SWAT team will kill the captor. He believes that he can talk the captor out of the situation. The police advise against this.

The police recommend shutting down the facility and operations and sending everyone home rather than letting them stand around waiting for word.

The police secure the facility.

Outcome

As a group, determine the outcome of this incident.

Questions/Discussion

1. Who (by job title) is on your crisis management team?
2. What drills have you done that prepared you for this situation?
3. How do you handle the confrontation?
4. How are you feeling at this point?
5. What do you do with the rest of the employees? (Evacuate?)
6. Who remains on the scene? (i.e., who are considered essential personnel?)
7. What production processes are going on that cannot be shut down? How will those be handled to allow for continuous operation?
8. How sensitive is your company to the negative publicity that may result from this incident?
9. How aware were you of this individual's situation and its potential?
10. Did you call the police?
11. Should you evacuate the facility and/or stop operations?
12. What are the possible outcomes of this situation? For the captor? For the hostages? For the company?
13. Should you make changes in the disciplinary procedures as a result of this incident?
14. How does the arrival of the SWAT team affect the other workers?
15. How do you handle phone calls for families trying to find out information about family member(s) working at the facility. (Provide rumor control hotline? Central crisis number?)
16. How do you deal with the media (who are clamoring in your face!!)?
17. Corporate management is on the phone. Your facility is off-line and on television. What do you tell them?
18. What changes will you make in the disciplinary procedures as a result of this scenario.
19. Should the families of the hostages be contacted? Who should do that? What do you anticipate their feelings or actions might be? What protocol is in place or will be put in place?
    

Debriefing and Future Preparedness Strategies

The danger is now past. How prepared was your facility? How will this experience change your policies/plans for future emergencies? Is this a situation that was formerly thought of as one that wouldn't happen here?

1. Consider stress management options.
2. Develop a protocol for employees reporting on "irrational remarks or behavior."