QLD Coal Mine Statutory Positions: SSE, UMM, OCE, ERZ Controller, Deputy

A statutory position at a Queensland coal mine is a role that the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 says someone must appoint, usually a person holding a board qualification from the Board of Examiners and the practising certificate that goes with it. The best known are the site senior executive (SSE), the underground mine manager (UMM), the open-cut examiner (OCE) and the ERZ controller. The SSE must also appoint 1 or more supervisors (s 56), but a supervisor needs to be competent and hold any supervisor competency the committee recognises, not a board qualification, so supervisors are not counted in the map below.

Two names people search for are not positions in the Act. "Deputy" is a certificate: a deputy's certificate of competency is one of the qualifications for the ERZ controller and for the person in control of underground activities when the manager is not at the mine. "Open-cut mine manager" is, in today's Act, the surface mine manager (s 58A), a role that does not apply until 2030.

This page is the map: every position, who appoints it, what it must hold, its main duties, whether the holder must be a direct employee, and what happens when the holder is away. For how to get each certificate, follow the links to the SSE notice, the open-cut examiner certificate, the deputy certificate and the mine manager certificate.

This is a plain-English study guide, not legal advice. The Act and the Regulation are what apply, and the Board of Examiners decides who holds which certificate. ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) or the Board of Examiners.

CMSH Act 1999 ss 53 to 61A and 331 to 334 (current as at 1 July 2026); RSHQ Direct employment requirements (22 Nov 2022) and Coal mining competencies (26 May 2026). Checked 6 Nov 2026. The count of 12 is ours: the positions in the table below, with the surface electrical and mechanical engineering managers counted separately.

The coal mine operator sits at the top. The holder for a coal mine may appoint an operator by written contract (Act s 53), and the operator must appoint one SSE for the mine (ss 41(1)(d) and 54(1)). Everything else hangs off the SSE and, below the SSE, the mine manager.

Source: CMSH Act 1999 ss 41, 53, 54, 58A, 59, 60, 61, 331, 333 and 334 (current as at 1 July 2026). The surface electrical and mechanical engineering managers share one row. The UMM may appoint more than 1 electrical or mechanical engineering manager to cover different times (s 60(12)), and more than 1 ventilation officer (s 61(7)).

The 2024 amendments to the Act added the surface mine manager (ss 58A and 58B) and made the underground electrical and mechanical engineering managers hold a Board certificate. The Act defers all three for 5 years after those amendments started (ss 331, 333 and 334), and RSHQ's competency list gives the date as 1 June 2030. An underground engineering manager who does not hold the Board certificate on that day has their appointment ended (ss 333(2) and 334(2)).

Until then the earlier rules still apply. For underground electrical engineering managers, RSHQ's list accepts the Board certificate or the older route of set competency units and qualifications. If electricity is proposed to be used in coal mining operations at a surface mine, the Regulation makes the SSE appoint a person to control and manage the electrical engineering activities (Reg s 111), and that person must have the recognised competencies (Reg s 17).

Source: CMSH Act ss 331, 333 and 334; CMSH Regulation ss 17 and 111; RSHQ Coal mining competencies, rows 4, 10, 11, 24 and 25 (last updated 26 May 2026).

Read the table as a chain. Each person in it appoints the next level and answers for getting it right; the appointment duties in ss 54 to 61 carry maximum penalties of up to 500 penalty units.

Two protections run the other way. Nobody may give the UMM a direction about a technical matter at the mine unless they hold a first class certificate for an underground coal mine (s 60(6)), and for the surface mine manager the direction may come only from someone holding both the surface mine manager's certificate and its practising certificate (s 58A(8)). Nobody may give either manager a direction that may adversely affect safety and health at the mine (ss 58A(9), 60(7)). For the OCE, the Regulation says a technical direction about a safety and health matter may come only from someone with competencies at least equivalent to the OCE's (Reg s 109).

Source: CMSH Act ss 41, 54, 56, 58A, 59, 60 and 61; CMSH Regulation s 109.

The appointment sections say what the role controls; the Regulation adds the detailed duties. These are the main ones, not the full list. For the Regulation by chapter, see our Regulation 2017 summary.

Source: CMSH Act ss 42, 55, 56, 58A, 60 and 61; CMSH Regulation ss 18, 104 to 108, 210, 306, 307, 315, 341 and 342. The Regulation's schedule 9 defines an ERZ controller as the person appointed for the ERZ under s 60(9) of the Act.

Some limits on holding more than one role: the UMM may manage more than 1 mine at the same time only with the chief inspector's written approval (s 60(13)), and the same goes for the surface mine manager (s 58A(6)); a ventilation officer may be appointed at more than 1 mine only if the chief inspector gives the UMM notice that they can do the duties at each mine (s 61(6)), and may hold another appointment at the same mine only if it does not stop them doing the ventilation officer's job (Reg s 340).

These questions play in our practice player: press Start, answer them, and the result page explains each answer with the section it comes from. They are our own practice questions on the Act and the Regulation.

Since 25 November 2022, RSHQ says, the people in the main statutory safety roles must be directly employed by the coal mine operator. The rule was passed in May 2020 and deferred for two and a half years so the industry could prepare. The current Act sets it out position by position, with two versions of the rule:

Source: CMSH Act ss 54, 58A, 59, 60 and 61 (current as at 1 July 2026); RSHQ Direct employment requirements for statutory safety roles in coal (last updated 22 Nov 2022). The RSHQ page predates the surface mine manager and does not list the s 60(8) role; the current Act includes both.

RSHQ explains the 80% exception as covering a large contractor company or major service provider that employs or engages most of the mine's workforce, such as a full-service contractor that runs the whole mine without being the operator. The other exceptions: the rule does not apply to the SSE of a mine whose only operations are exploration activities (s 54(6)), and it does not stop a non-employee acting in a role for up to 12 weeks (next section).

Each statutory position has its own acting rule. In all of them the acting person must hold the same board qualifications as the role, and someone who is not an employee under the rule above may act for no more than 12 weeks from the day the holder left or was first absent. The one exception: the 12-week limit does not apply to an acting SSE at a mine whose only coal mining activities are exploration (s 57(8)).

Source: CMSH Act ss 57, 58B, 59A, 60A and 61A (current as at 1 July 2026). For other people in the management structure who supervise workers where there is a risk, s 58 makes the SSE appoint another competent person during a temporary absence.

A certificate of competency or SSE notice on its own is not enough to fill any of these positions. Each appointment section asks for the practising certificate the Board of Examiners requires as well. RSHQ says registration in the Board's Practising Certificate Scheme has been mandatory for competency and notice holders working in statutory positions since 10 June 2025, and the Act ended the appointment of anyone in the positions it lists (among them the SSE, OCE, UMM, the s 60(8) role, ERZ controllers and the ventilation officer) who did not hold one on that day (s 335). For the engineering managers and the surface mine manager, the practising certificate comes with the 2030 requirement.

Source: CMSH Act s 335; RSHQ Certificates of competency (last updated 29 Oct 2026).

The Act does not set a career ladder, but the Board's experience requirements make some steps come before others. This is a common path, not a legal sequence; each certificate has its own checklist.

Source: RSHQ Board of Examiners checklists for the deputy, second class, first class, surface mine manager and SSE (coal) qualifications, as read 6 Nov 2026; RSHQ Coal mining competencies, row 9 (SSE). The SSE notice is not a manager's certificate: a UMM needs the first class certificate and an SSE needs the notice. Details, including the OCE requirements: OCE guide, deputy guide, mine manager guide, SSE notice guide.

These two are our own, written from the current Act. They are not Board of Examiners questions.