Summary
According
to China's top industrial safety official, Mr. Li
Yizhong, fires and other accidents killed 1,113 coal
miners during the first quarter of 2005, which is a 21-percent
increase over the same period last year. Among a number
of recent major coal mine disasters in the past few
months, the explosion at Sunjiawan colliery in February
2005 which killed a total of 214 miners has been the
deadliest coal mine accident in China since 1949.
China produces 35% of the world's coal, yet it also
results in 80% of mine casualties worldwide. Compared to
other countries, the death rate for producing every 100
tons of coal in China is 100 times that of the USA, 30
times that of South Africa, and 10 times that of India.
In China, a mine accident causing more than 10 deaths
happens on an average of 7.4 days, and one claiming more
than 30 occurs every 50 days.
With its strong economic growth, the country's demand for
coal is ever growing. Consequently, mines produce beyond
their capacity with inadequate safety facilities.
Although, the Chinese government has set out safety
standards for coal mines, such as the "Rules and
Procedures on Coal Mining Safety," mine owners and
officials often ignore them.
According to the China Labour Bulletin (CLB), a Hong Kong-based
organization promoting labour rights in China, the lack
of strict enforcement of rules and the banning of
independent trade unions, account for the ineffectiveness
of those well-meant regulations. The Justice and Peace
Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese (HKJP) is
launching a post-card campaign to urge the authorities to
take practical measures to improve the situation.
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Background
A nation-wide
safety campaign is said to have reduced the casualty rate
in 2004, but, according to figures from the State
Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), coal mine accidents
still caused 6,027 deaths from January to November in
2004. The SAWS reported that coal mine accidents killed 6,702
people in 2003. But in June 2004, the China Labour
Bulletin (CLB) was unofficially told by a Chinese
government source in Europe that the real figure could be
"at least 20,000 a year," since many deaths are
allegedly covered up or not recorded.
Huge Demand for Coal
According to Bloomberg, China's demand for coal, which
accounts for 67% of its power needs, surged as the
economy expanded 9.5% in the first nine months of 2004,
amid a coal-transportation bottleneck and poor rail
networks. Mr. Dou Qingfeng, president of the China Coal
Information Institute, an affiliated organization to the
State Administration of Coal Industry agreed, "More
than 60 percent of China's energy demands depend on coal
supply and the situation will not change much over the
next 20 or 30 years." China's skyrocketing demand
for coal to keep its power plants and factories running
has forced 1 out of 3 state-owned mines to operate beyond
its capacity.
The huge demand had pushed up the price of coal and gave
rise to many small or even illegally run mines. Central
government statistics in 2004 show that 24,000 of China's
28,000 coal mines are small operations. Most accidents
occur in these mines whose owners are generally
indifferent to safety rules and there is always
insufficient equipment required to extract gas seeping
from coal beds. A coal industry expert was quoted saying:
"More than 90 percent of small coal mines should be
shut down for safety reasons, as their poor facilities
cannot meet safety standards."
Facing the problem of coal shortages last winter, local
governments encouraged the production of coal to meet the
rocketing demand. They offered cash bonuses to operators
as an incentive to boost output. In the blast of the
Chenjiashan colliery in Tungchuan City, Shaanxi Province,
in November 2004, it is reported that mine operators were
promised a 400,000 yuan bonus (USD50,000) if they could
raise output by 400,000 tonnes in the last 2 months of
the year. In contrast, compensation for the victims of
the blast, the calculation of value of a miner's life is
51,000 yuan (USD6,375), an extra 20,000 yuan (USD2,500)
for widow allowance and another 20,000 yuan for an
unrecovered body. Mine operators therefore could afford
at least 3 deaths and still come out with a profit.
Moreover, many privately owned mines reportedly ignore
regulations, and in some cases, private mines have
continued to operate even after government officials
ordered them closed for safety reasons.
The Government's Failure to Reduce Coal mine
Deaths
Aware of the increasing number of small mines, the
central government actually issued a notice to eliminate
small coal mines across the country 3 years ago. In June
2001, the State Council issued an urgent circular
demanding that all state-owned small coal mines be shut
immediately and all township coal mines should suspend
their operation, in an attempt to curb the recurrence of
accidents.
However, the situation changed little in the past 3 years.
Mr. Duo Qingfeng, president of the China Coal Information
Institute was quoted by the South China Morning Post in
saying that many small coal mines were closely connected
with local governments, while in some areas, local
governments were financially dependent on the mines.
On 12 December 2001, the State Economic and Trade
Commission (SETC), with reference to the "ILO
Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)
Management Systems," formulated a document entitled
"Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health
Management Systems." The aim of the document was
"to encourage all employees of employing units,
especially top level executives, managers, workers and
their representatives, to adopt rational principles and
methods of OSH management in order to uphold and continue
to improve effective OSH in China." The guidelines
have been in place for more than 3 years, but there is
little evidence of the recommendations being implemented.
On 9 December 2004, in response to the seemingly endless
succession of major coal mining disasters in China, the
State Administration for Work Safety and the State Coal
Mining Safety Supervisory Bureau, jointly issued a 131-page
document, "Rules and Procedures on Coal Mining
Safety." These new regulations came into force on 1
January 2005.
However, the deadliest reported mining disaster - since
the communist party took power in 1949 - the mine
explosion at Sunjiwan coal mine in Fuxin City, Liaoning
Province, on 15 February 2005 with 214 deaths, proved
another failure to enforce the regulations. Mr. Robin
Munro, research director of CLB commented, "The
conclusion we've got to draw is that there's no real
enforcement…. there's just lots of paper being put
out by the central government." In the absence of
such commitment, no amount of fresh regulations will halt
the continuing death toll in the country's mining
industry.
Absence of Independent Trade Unions
Independent worker organizations are banned and China's
official trade union is closely tied to the government,
leaving miners with few outlets to press for reforms.
Moreover, Mr. Stephen Frost, a research fellow at the
City University of Hong Kong noted that mine owners also
playing the role of government-workplace safety
inspectors cause a "serious conflict of interest"
in enforcing existing regulations.
This problem was demonstrated in how miners hardly get
adequate compensation. Mr. Han Dongfang, director of CLB,
said many workers who are ignorant of the law, sign
contracts agreeing to meager compensation if an accident
occurs. "They have no bargaining power at all and
there is no independent labour union to help them."
In the compensation process of the deadliest mine
accident at Sunjiwan colliery (February 2005), the
official trade union played little role for the miners.
Although the mining company had initially announced that
it would give each bereaved family 200,000 yuan (USD25,000)
in compensation, affected families learnt that each
family would receive only 80,000 yuan (USD10.000) in
compensation and the remaining 120,000 yuan (USD15,000)
would have to come from community donations. A retired
miner from the Sunjiwan colliery said that since the
compensation package was directly arranged by the State
Council, the affected families would be unable to
challenge it if they were not satisfied with the amount.
A representative of the official trade union, the All
China Federation of Trade Union (ACFTU) from Fuxin Coal
Industry Group, when interviewed by CLB, said he was
"not sure about the details of the compensation
arrangements."
Sources:
Justice and Peace Commission of HK Diocese;
RTHK Online;
China Labour Bulletin (http://www.china-labour.org.hk/iso/article.adp?article_id=6114 and http://www.china-labour.org.hk/iso/article.adp?article_id=6320 )
Rules and Procedures on Coal Mining Safety.
http://www.chinacoal-safety.gov.cn/zhengcefagui/2004-12/09/content_58351.htm (Chinese only)
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