‘200 mineworkers are killed each year in country’

KARACHI: Marking a ‘Black Day’ for mineworkers on Friday, trade unionists said the government should amend the century-old mines act to draw it on modern lines and take strict measures to implement the law as this indifference was continuously taking lives.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, they said the federal and provincial governments, owners and contractors were directly responsible for these unfortunate incidents in which workers were killed because there were no occupational safety and health facilities in mines across the country.

The presser was held by representatives of National Trade Union Federation, Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research, Pakistan Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mines and General Workers Union, Home Based Women Workers Federation and Thar Coal Workers Union.

They said that according to an estimate, at least 200 mineworkers are killed each year in the country and have to suffer long working hours, inadequate pay and diseases like tuberculosis, headaches and myopia among others. They added there was no imposition of the Mines Act, 1923 nor of the Coal Mines (fixation of rates of wages) Ordinance, 1960.

“Around one percent of the global workforce is associated with mines while their mortality rate is above eight percent. Though there have had been improvements in working conditions in some countries yet each year 12,000 workers die at workplaces. Pakistan, however, is among the countries where these conditions are the worst.”

They said that in gold, copper, iron ore, diamond and coal mines in Swat, Kohat, Machh, Bolan, Sanjdi, Dagari, Tharparkar, Lakhra, Meting, Khuzdar, Nall, Khewra, Dandot and Mingora in the country, thousands of workers were suffering inhumane working conditions and had no provision of health, death grants and pension facilities.

The speakers commented that the employers, despite earning billions in revenues, had in collusion with the authorities turned the mine industry into a ‘baigar camp’ where workers had no right to unionize.

They deplored that in the past 70 years of the country, the government neither had made a policy for mineworkers nor had ratified the International Labor Organization’s Convention 176 on safety and health in mines while 33 countries of the world have already adopted it to improve the working conditions.

Talking about Pakistan, they said the country was rich in mineral resources and to benefit from it, several multinationalcompanies were also investing in the mine industry here. They said that one of the reasons of having the highest casualty rate was the employment of outdated methods in mining.

They said that most of the mines were under “soft mountains” that collapsed in rains, resulting in deaths of workers. They added that similarly gas blasts in mines were also killing the workers.

They pointed out that there was no data of workers who died a slow death because of the diseases they got from their workplaces.“In Thar, some local and foreign countries are extracting coal and despite earning handsomely they were not even paying the minimum wage to workers.

They were made to work 12 hours a day and in the end were paid Rs400 (less than $4) only. Plus, they were denied holidays. On top of it, a renowned company has not even paid the workers for past three months.”

The speakers demanded that the government ratifies the ILO Convention 176, prepare a policy for mineworkers, legislate on modern lines, start tripartite consultation to bring betterment, give workers the right to unionise, and implement the labor and health and safety laws.