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Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

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Throughout a one-day, 21 November, ICEM conference on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), taking place prior to the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s 4th ICEM World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, speaker after speaker confirmed that the trend of industry subcontracting is rapidly increasing throughout the world. 
 
Predominant is the continuing trend of subcontracting in developing nations. With few exceptions, the 300 trade unionists attending cited specific problems with agency, temporary, short-term contract, or self-employment labour, relating directly to the lack of a (decent) employment relationship. 
 
For many of the world&rsquo;s workers, affecting most industries, a prior, normal relationship has been reduced to one of much lesser quality. For others, the relationship has changed to a mere commercial one, with workers&rsquo; taking the job security risks, and an erosion of social benefits affecting both workers and society. 
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The ICEM conference produced several examples in which subcontracting is becoming rampant on several continents. In the mining and diamond sector of India, virtually all miners are contract labourers. In Thailand and Korea, examples were cited where CAL work is omnipresent. 
 
Africa was described as globalisation&rsquo;s play ground. In the mining sector of sub-Saharan Africa, many problems are created by investors who think anything in the employment realm is possible. Other examples came from a wide variety of countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, United States, Japan, Tanzania, Peru, and the UK. 
 
A special contribution came from Hassan J&rsquo;Aama, President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU). 
 
The conference also delivered, however, case studies in which unions and trade unionists have succeeded in rolling back the trend. One such example came from Brazil. At the oil firm Petrobras four years ago, there were three contract workers for each permanent worker. Today, after sound bargaining by trade unions, the ratio is one permanent worker to every one-and-a-half contract worker. 
 
Chile, Uruguay, South Africa, Macedonia, and Croatia were also quoted as countries where progress has been made, both legislatively and at the collective bargaining table. 
<img height="333" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Hassan J&rsquo;Aama, President of Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)
Given the difficult situation in many countries, and the need by many to hear how others deal with temporary or agency labour, the ICEM was called upon to continue and intensify its three-year-old campaign on this employment issue. 
 
A key ingredient of this work is the need to guarantee that all CAL workers - everywhere - are entitled to the same wages, benefits, and work rights as the permanent workers. 
 
Also stressed was the importance of legislation efforts in regard to contract and agency labour, preferably at nation-wide level. The principles of the ILO Recommendation 198, the Employment Relationship Recommendation, will be an important tool in this. 
 
Finally, it was agreed that unions need to reach out to short-term contract or temporary workers. In too many countries, such workers have faced resentment from trade union members. Setting up unions, or union divisions, for CAL workers, or &ndash; by many, the preferred option &ndash; simply bringing CAL workers into existing union structures, is seen as an important and needed accomplishment.&nbsp;

Contract and Agency Labour - a Global and Negative Phenomenon

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Calling South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry &ldquo;the killing fields within our economy,&rdquo; the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) submitted a report on mine safety 14 November to the National Parliament&rsquo;s Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy. 
 
The NUM listed eight recommendations needed to reduce the number of accidents and deaths occurring in South African mines. They include obtaining better detection technology on seismic geological events; legislation that will provide steeper fines on mining houses, up to imprisonment for executives when tragedies do occur; enabling legislation to nationalise mines when mining companies are found negligent in death-related accidents; and a mandatory review and heightened training of safety representatives by companies and the government, which must include risk assessment criteria enabling miners to detect and report hazardous conditions. 
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The report cited the number of deaths and injuries per million hours worked in South Africa&rsquo;s mines since the year 2000. And it specifically highlighted the fact that, even though the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1996 sets forth a procedure for legal prosecution in mine safety negligence, no such prosecution has occurred dating back to the year 2000. 
 
&ldquo;Given the gravity of this situation and the need to send a clear message to employers that profit maximisation must not be pursued at the cost of our members&rsquo; lives,&rdquo; the NUM report concludes, we have no alternative but &ldquo;to embark on a National Strike.&rdquo; 
 
In mid-October, the NUM filed for certification for such a strike with the Commission on Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA). That governmental agency, along with the NUM and the Chamber of Mines, is currently in the consultation process that is mandatory before any legal strike can occur.

NUM Recommends Broad Mine Safety Changes to South Africa’s Parliament

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New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is giving support to a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill put forward by an MP that would give labour agency workers the right to be covered by a collective agreement. 
 
Labour MP Darien Fenton has submitted the legislation to New Zealand&rsquo;s Parliament, saying contract labourers and agency workers are often placed in a workplace to do the same job that full-time workers perform. But, he added, they are paid less and have fewer rights. 
 
The proposed legislative change is called the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Fenton saw first-hand the unfairness faced by temporary workers. He recently visited a worksite where temporary workers from an agency are employed. &ldquo;Entitlements are few and far between,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are no entitlements to breaks apart from lunch. There are no shift payments, no overtime rates, no weekend rates or other allowances, even though directly-employed workers receive these things. 
 
&ldquo;Under my bill, workers like these will be able to join the collective agreement in force at the workplace, thus ensuring they have the same pay and rights as directly-employed workers.&rdquo; 
 
Since Fenton&rsquo;s bill is a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill, in New Zealand it means that it will have to wait to be drawn from the ballot before it is brought before Parliament.

Private Member’s Bill Surfaces in New Zealand on Agency Labour

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French rubber workers at the Goodyear-Dunlop twin plants in Amiens rejected a company restructuring plan that would increase work hours. With a 65% vote, the two factories, totalling 2,700 workers, said &lsquo;no&rsquo; to the American company&rsquo;s plan to reduce weekly rotation teams from five to four, and cut weekend pay for each worker by 10%. 
<img height="150" alt="" src="" width="115" />
All the primary French unions at the plants, including ICEM affiliate CFDT, recommended that workers reject the plan, and following the vote, they urged a quick return to dialogue to re-shape the restructuring plan. 
 
Goodyear&rsquo;s plan would also eliminate 450 jobs over three years through attrition. The company is seeking reorganisation of the plants in northern France in order to implement a &euro;52 million modernisation plan to produce high-performance tyres. But the reorganisation would increase work time by rotation of shifts every eight days. Weekend work would also have increased from 28 to 35 hours, had workers accepted the plan.

French Goodyear Workers Reject Reorganisation that would Increase Work Hours

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Trade unions in the UK are campaigning behind a Private Member's Bill that would give equal treatment to the more than one million contract and agency workers employed in the UK. 
Both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and UK&rsquo;s largest union, Unite, are campaigning for legislation that will give agency workers the same rights as full-time, permanent staff. Also on board are the unions GMB, Unison, Communication Workers Union, and the Union of Construction, Allied Trades, and Technicians (UCATT). 
<img height="108" alt="" src="" width="92" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="90" alt="" src="" width="90" align="absMiddle" />
The campaign begins after draft legislation, called the Temporary Agency Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Bill, was brought by Labour MP Paul Farrelly. The unions are also pressing that a European Directive on full rights for contract and agency workers be adopted before the end of the Portuguese Presidency, which ends at year&rsquo;s end.
The TUC said if negotiations on an EU Directive fail to make progress, the British government must pass domestic legislation. The Blair government broke a pledge to support a 2006 Private Member&rsquo;s Bill by Farrelly, a promise that was made in the 2004 Warwick Agreement. Farrelly's bill did get the support of more than 100 Labour MPs. 
<img height="72" alt="" src="" width="155" />
&quot;Too many employers are replacing permanent staff with badly paid, insecure agency staff,&rdquo; said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. &ldquo;Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating a whole underclass of temporary workers.&rdquo; 
Barber said the simple solution is an EU Directive that would give UK agency workers new rights to equal treatment from the first day on the job. But UK&rsquo;s government has led a blocking minority at the EU, which has prevented progress on a Directive that would provide equal treatment for contract and agency workers.

UK Unions Campaign for Legislation Granting Agency Workers Full Rights

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Mobilisation of European trade unions is in full force, counting down to a 4 December European Day of Action in Rotterdam, Netherlands, against food and chemicals company Unilever&rsquo;s unjust job cuts. The mobilisation is being headed by the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT), and has the full support of the European Trade Union Congress (ETUC), the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Federation (EMCEF), and the ICEM. 
In August, the Anglo-Dutch company announced a global reorganisation plan that would make redundant one-tenth of its 180,000 employees. Unilever would close 60 workplaces, out of 300 worldwide. In Europe, the company&rsquo;s global plan results in 10,000 to 12,000 job losses, with 20 to 25 plants endangered over the next 3 years. 
<img height="46" alt="" src="" width="146" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="85" alt="" src="" width="100" align="absMiddle" />
In The Netherlands, where a number of strikes have already occurred, FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Voeding came to agreement with Unilever recently over a new collective agreement, as well as job security terms over closure of three Dutch plants by the end of 2008. The plants targeted for closure are in Delft, where Calv&eacute; food products are made; in Loosdrecht, a plant making Knorr food products; and in Vlaardingen, a Lever Faberg&eacute; plant where consumer products are made. 
 
The job security terms state that plant-site Works Councils will study the company&rsquo;s plans and be allowed to develop alternatives. Those alternatives will then be seriously considered by the company in consultations with workers&rsquo; representatives. The two unions also agreed to fair compensation for any proposed job cuts. Unilever also guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies. 
In the collective agreement, running from May 2007 to March 2009, Dutch workers received a retroactive backpay award of 3% to last May. On 1 March 2008, they will receive a structural pay raise of 3.5%. The contract covers 3,000 workers. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="200" />
For the 4 December manifestation, the ICEM and EMCEF issued a joint declaration regarding Unilever&rsquo;s global restructuring. In part, it reads, &ldquo;Unilever&rsquo;s August 2007 announced restructuring is the wrong response to the financial community&rsquo;s criticism of the company.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM, along with its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), cites Unilever&rsquo;s anti-worker behaviour elsewhere as well. In India, the company has engaged in union-busting with the Hindustan Lever Employees Union at a factory in Assam. In trying to avoid social dialogue with the union, Unilever sold the food operation to a shell company. In Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, at a foods and tea factory, Unilever called in armed militia to break workers protest against a plan to replace 950 permanent jobs, out of 1,200, with casual and contract workers. 
<img height="75" alt="" src="" width="70" />
In Vinheido, Brazil, Unilever took an uncompromising position in collective negotiations that set the worst precedents on implementing precarious work. Likewise, in Chile, South Africa, and Colombia, Unilever has exhibited clear and negative attitudes relating to labour relations.

European Unions to March 4 December Against Unilever’s Restructuring

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1. The ICEM Women&rsquo;s Conference Runs 17-18 November in Bangkok 
2. Africa &ndash; More Women in Governments 
3. Mexico &ndash; Discrimination Is on the Rise 
4. The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) Meets in Washington 
5. &lsquo;Molecular condom&rsquo; Is Developed To Fight HIV/AIDS 
6. From Our Readers 
7. Resources
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
1. The ICEM Women&rsquo;s Conference Runs 17-18 November in Bangkok
All systems are go for the ICEM Women&rsquo;s Conference, which will kick off week-long events of the ICEM&rsquo;s Fourth Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. The Women&rsquo;s Committee will be meeting on 17 and 18 November, and most delegates will stay on to attend Congress as delegates. The conference theme is &ldquo;Women &ndash; Work &ndash; 21st Century.&rdquo; 
 
The theme blocks for the conference will cover peace, contract and agency labour, women&rsquo;s health in the broadest sense, and the work-life balance. Presentations, debates, and working groups will contemplate these subjects and decide on a work plan covering these issues for the next four years. Congress motions will also be discussed. 
 
The conference will elect the chair and vice-chair of the Women&rsquo;s Section, who in turn will sit on the ICEM Presidium. We look forward to seeing you in great numbers in Bangkok! 
&nbsp;<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
2. Africa &ndash; More Women in Governments 
In Morocco, seven women were appointed to head strategic ministries, ranging from energy to culture. This compares with two in the previous government. In Senegal, the new Senate has double the number of women. There are now 40 women in that body, out of 100 total, and this compares with the previous chamber, which had only 18 women. 
&nbsp;<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
3. Mexico &ndash; Discrimination Is on the Rise 
A recent Mexican report indicates that accusations for job-related discrimination have gone up astronomically. From 2001 to 2006 the accusations of sexual harassment went up by 122%, firing for pregnancy-related causes by 106%, work-related violence by 61% and general discrimination by 133%. 
 
Employers tend to consider pregnancy to be a crime, instead of it being normal and a social responsibility. The Women&rsquo;s Institute considers sexual harassment to be one of the reasons why women are not promoted. The salary gap in Mexico is between 7% and 35%. The old forms of discrimination still remain, but they have been joined by new ones &ndash; emphasis on size, stature, figure, physical appearance, and simply on being single. 
 
Discrimination is banned by the Constitution, but the Labour Ministry feels that not much can be done against it because there are too loopholes. The main problem is that there is no culture of equality. Economic necessity also forces women to accept jobs that they know beforehand discrimination exists. But when women are heads of families, they have little choice. 
&nbsp;<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
4. The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) Meets in Washington 
The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) met in Washington on 5-6 November. The Commission worked on the Draft Declaration of San Salvador: Gender, Violence, and HIV and redrafting its statutes. CIM, a specialized organization of the Organization of American States, is the principal forum for generating hemispheric policy to advance women's rights and gender equality. 
 
Established in 1928 at the Sixth International Conference of American States (Havana, Cuba), the CIM was the first official intergovernmental agency in the world created expressly to ensure recognition of the civil and political rights of women. As such, it has played a crucial role in making the participation and support of women a legitimate and indispensable part of governance and international consensus building in the Americas. 
&nbsp;<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
5. &lsquo;Molecular condom&rsquo; Is Developed To Fight HIV/AIDS
Kavita Gupta, a female doctoral student from India at the University of Utah in the US, has developed a &quot;molecular condom.&quot; The condom is really a microbicide gel that kills HIV, and is designed to allow women more control in preventing AIDS since partners need to be involved in the application. 
The university is partnering with a contraceptive marketer to sell the products in India, where AIDS in increasingly being seen as a feminized disease. AIDS is spreading most rapidly in India among young women, according to the World Health Organization, and 2.5 million people there carry the virus. 
&nbsp;<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
6. From Our Readers 
 
The Women&rsquo;s Committee in the Petrochemical, Mines and Energy Workers Union in Palestine held a four-day workshop to train women. The aim of the workshop was to enable women to make plans and support women&rsquo;s issues so that they would have experience and insight into women&rsquo;s activities in Arab countries and the world. 
The workshop dealt with women and democracy, new technologies, public speaking, and support mechanisms for women workers. The women had many ideas about trade unions and society. At the end they received a diploma. 
&nbsp;<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
7. Resources
<a href="http://www.siyanda.org/docs/WGEKN_sen_ostlin_george.pdf">Unequal, Unfair, Ineffective and Inefficient Gender Inequity in Health</a>: Why it exists and how we can change it - Final Report to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health - September 2007 - Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network 
<a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTOGMC/EXTEXTINDWOM/0,,menuPK:3157100~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:3156914,00.html">World Bank&rsquo;s website &ndash; Extractive Industries and Gender</a> 
<a href="http://www.mdgmonitor.org">http://www.mdgmonitor.org</a> 
UN&rsquo;s new website to track progress on the Millennium Development Goals. 
<a href="http://www.catalystwomen.org">http://www.catalystwomen.org</a> 
On reports on gender stereotyping at work, inclusive work environments and women&rsquo;s progress in business. 
<a href="http://www.uchastings.edu/?pid=3624">http://www.uchastings.edu/?pid=3624</a> 
Work Life Law, a site dealing with family responsibilities and discrimination 
<a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Feature_stories/lang--en/WCMS_084620/index.htm">Women in the workplace</a>: New ILO report highlights how action in the world of work can help reduce maternal deaths 
<a href="http://www.observatoriogeneroyliderazgo.cl/">http://www.observatoriogeneroyliderazgo.cl/</a> 
Women Leadership (in Spanish) 
<a href="http://www.generoycomercio.org/">http://www.generoycomercio.org/</a> 
Gender and Trade (in Spanish) 
<a href="http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Gender%20Gap/index.htm ">The Global Gender Gap Report 2007</a> 
<a href="http://nomasviolenciacontramujeres.cl/cms/">http://nomasviolenciacontramujeres.cl/cms/</a> 
Chilean network against domestic and sexual violence (in Spanish)

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 26

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers Unions (ICEM) deplores the arrest, two days after the emergency decree in Pakistan, of Deputy General Secretary Rana Ayub Aki Khan, leader of ICEM affiliated WAPDA Labor Union (PWLU). 
 
&ldquo;We demand his immediate release, and the release of the others.&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;It should not be surprising that a leader of a trade union &ndash; and one that has been outspoken in the way Pakistan has operated its public utilities &ndash; is one of the first ones rounded up and arrested.&rdquo; 
 
PWLU is a strong trade union voice inside the 130,000-worker Pakistani Water and Development Authority (WAPDA). ICEM has learned that Rana Ayub Aki Khan, along with 4 colleagues, were arrested on Monday, November 5, and are in a police jail in Gujranwala, Punjab Province. The ICEM also received notice that other leaders of WAPDA have now gone into hiding. 
 
The union has protested against government mismanagement and inefficiency at the public utility. It has also blamed a political patronage system with failure to deliver basic services, such as education and health. 
 
On October 29, nearly 1,000 WAPDA workers marched in Peshawar in protest of authorities ignoring the kidnapping of a co-worker at a WAPDA subsidiary, Peshawar Electricity Supply Co. Mukhtiar Khan is a driver for the utility. <a href="/en/?id=78&amp;doc=2444&amp;la=EN">Click here for more on that</a>. 
 
The ICEM is a Brussels-based 20-million-member Global Union Federation representing oil, gas, power, mine, chemicals, and other manufacturing workers. It has 384 affiliated trade unions in 118 countries. 
 
For more, please contact Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, <a href="mailto:Dick.blin@icem.org">Dick.blin@icem.org</a>, Tel: +32 2 626 2026, or +32 2 377 4023

Trade Unionist Immediate Victim of Pakistan Crackdown

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Around 100 African trade union delegates, from 15 countries, attended the ICEM regional conference of the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), held in Gaborone, Botswana, on 5 and 6 July 2007. 
 
Welile Nolingo, regional chair and General Secretary of South African ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU, opened the conference and reported on the improved political situation in the region, where several countries are recovering from a period of war. Though corruption is still a serious problem in many of those countries, often badly hampering economic development, trade unions are showing their determination in challenging their governments to deal with these, and other, negative aspects of their governance. 
<img height="171" src="" width="200" alt="" />
Welile Nolingo, General Secretary of South African ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU
The organisational development of the region was discussed, with delegates agreeing that the ICEM members need to be more involved in ICEM activities in the region. This applies not only to the donor funded projects, but also to the need to develop more bilateral contacts and activities. 
 
It was further stressed that the ICEM affiliates in the region need to develop a strategic plan, focussing on the continuing development of strong and democratic unions. A plan was proposed by the secretariat to that extent. Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), HIV/AIDS, Global Framework Agreements (GFA) and Company Networks were also listed as topics that increasingly need to become core business. 
<img height="188" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Rayford Mbulu, incoming ICEM regional chair and General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia 
Recognising the growth of activity in the ICEM industries in the region (mining, oil, gas, chemicals), the ICEM General Secretary reconfirmed his engagement to devote more attention within the secretariat to this specific region. He also mentioned the need to empower trade unions and their leaderships in Western Africa, and made an appeal to all members to focus on closer cooperation between members, but also with representatives and affiliates of other GUF&rsquo;s. The integration of the WFIW into the ICEM was expected to lead to additional strength in the region, especially in Francophone countries. 
 
The conference adopted several statutory changes, of which the most important was on formally establishing a Women&rsquo;s Committee within the regional structure. 
 
The conference elected Brother Rayford Mbulu, General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia, as the next Regional Chair. Sister Baru Gaaithoboge of the Botswana Diamond Sorters and Valuators Union was elected as the Regional Women&rsquo;s Chair at the Regional Women&rsquo;s Conference, which was held just prior to the SSARO Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

ICEM Sub-Saharan African Regional Conference held in Gaborone, Botswana

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The last three major mining disasters in Russia&rsquo;s Kemerovo and Vorkuta Regions, which took 159 lives in three months, are a clear indication that the system of mining safety in the country is making miners hostages of profitability. 
 
Officially, the two methane explosions in Kemerovo resulted from faulty cables, which short-circuited and detonated the mixture of methane, air, and coal dust. Systems used at the mine to automatically localise and suppress explosions all failed (and were later prohibited for use in all Russian mines). 
<img height="95" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The high concentration of methane remained undetected because the mines&rsquo; gas detection systems were tampered with. Meters showed methane concentration in the mines to be significantly less than it actually was, and the complete power shut-down, which would normally prevent any short-circuiting in such situations, therefore never took place. 
 
Ruben Badalov, First Vice President of the ICEM-affiliated Russian Independent Coal Miners&rsquo; Union (ROSUGLEPROF), and a member of the Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, was on the federal investigatory team at the Ulianovskaya mine. Probing beyond the immediate causes, he exposes several indirect ones, whose nature cannot be reduced simply to matters of production discipline. 
<img height="185" alt="" src="" width="240" />
These indirect causes fall into a number of categories: from mistakes in the extraction estimates to assumptions of legal &ldquo;liberalisation&rdquo; of the whole mining safety control system. This makes it virtually impossible for public supervisory agencies, like Rostechnadzor, or the union&rsquo;s own inspectors, to enforce timely closures of unsafe mines. The common denominator for all the categories is a lack of regulatory mechanisms in the industry where the rule of the market is largely unchecked.
&ldquo;The actual methane content of the coal seam at the Ulianovskaya mine turned out to be several times higher than the project estimates,&quot; says Badalov, himself a mining engineer with extensive experience. 
<img height="58" alt="" src="" width="329" />
&ldquo;Moreover, the intensive extraction schedule contributed to the release of still greater amounts of methane into the mine, which was never properly degassed &ndash; a costly procedure. The roof was defined in the project documentation as highly resistant to caving and prone to overhanging. At the same time, the seam liability to rock bumps had been assumed to manifest itself ten metres below the level where the explosion took place. As a result, no precautionary measures, such as preventive degassing of the mine, or induced caving of the roof, had been scheduled. It was during the uncontrolled caving of 70 metres of the overhanging roof that huge amounts of methane were momentarily released into the mine.&rdquo; 
 
Both mines were designed by the same people, belonging to the same school of mining engineering, and while the licensing procedure is still in place, there&rsquo;s no meaningful quality control as the development of the mining science in Russia was hindered by lack of support from the state. 
<img height="88" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Ruben Badalov maintains that, as a purely commercial approach inevitably brings a temptation to simplify processes and disregard relevant specificities, there must be state supervision of all engineering work related to hazardous production processes. 
 
The Kuzbass disasters once again highlight the existing disparity between the fixed component of the coal miner&rsquo;s wages and the productivity-driven parts. The drop in income during outages to less than half of regular wages pushes miners to reckless behaviour. At the Yubileinaya mine, all it took to deceive the gas detection system was a piece of cloth wrapped around a gas sensor. 
 
&ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t stimulate productivity, this stimulates coal extraction at any cost,&rdquo; says Badalov. In the course of the Federal Industry Agreement negotiations earlier this year, ROSUGLEPROF tabled a proposal to raise the fixed part of the wages to 70%, and although the target could not be achieved uniformly and in full, there were companies who were prepared to take this figure as a reference point.

Three Mining Disasters Take 159 Lives in Russia

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