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Rule ruse: Miners promoted to 'bosses'
By Li Xinran |
September 21, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BOSSES at a coal mine in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region came up with a quick answer to a new safety rule demanding that mine bosses spend time below ground with the miners and experience their dangerous working conditions:
They appointed six workers as "assistant mine heads."
The Zhaoyang coal mine in Guangxi's Hechi City made the appointments immediately after the issuance of the official document late last month, according to China National Radio.
Big bosses of the privately owned coal mine have emphasized the seven newly promoted assistant mine heads have been freed from digging every day and are paid more.
"Their only mission is to supervise works underground alternatively," as the top bosses are busy handling business aboveground, the bosses said.
"All of them are with work safety certificates," added the bosses.
An official in charge of coal mine safety in the regional work safety administration agreed with what the mine's bosses said.
Risking lives
However, the official document released on August 23 makes no mention of an "assistant mine head" among the mine leaders required to go deep underground on every shift along with the workers.
The rule is an intensified effort by the government to curb repeated coal mine accidents in which bosses risk miners' lives by keeping them working to make huge profits for the companies with little concern for safety.
Absent leaders will be fined from 30 percent to 80 percent of their annual wages if an accident takes place, and will lose their positions permanently if the accident is defined as major.
Rule-breaking mines will be fined up to 5 million yuan (US$729,200) and will have their licenses revoked, said the State Administration of Work Safety.
The rule, which goes into effect on October 7, followed a similar order by Premier Wen Jiabao's in July that has gone largely ignored. Since the premier mentioned it, five mine accidents trapped 49 workers in Henan, Shaanxi, Hunan, Gansu and Liaoning provinces without leaders or managers on the scene. And a gas explosion on September 9 at Ma'anshan Coal Mine in Yunnan Province killed seven workers and injured 12.
They appointed six workers as "assistant mine heads."
The Zhaoyang coal mine in Guangxi's Hechi City made the appointments immediately after the issuance of the official document late last month, according to China National Radio.
Big bosses of the privately owned coal mine have emphasized the seven newly promoted assistant mine heads have been freed from digging every day and are paid more.
"Their only mission is to supervise works underground alternatively," as the top bosses are busy handling business aboveground, the bosses said.
"All of them are with work safety certificates," added the bosses.
An official in charge of coal mine safety in the regional work safety administration agreed with what the mine's bosses said.
Risking lives
However, the official document released on August 23 makes no mention of an "assistant mine head" among the mine leaders required to go deep underground on every shift along with the workers.
The rule is an intensified effort by the government to curb repeated coal mine accidents in which bosses risk miners' lives by keeping them working to make huge profits for the companies with little concern for safety.
Absent leaders will be fined from 30 percent to 80 percent of their annual wages if an accident takes place, and will lose their positions permanently if the accident is defined as major.
Rule-breaking mines will be fined up to 5 million yuan (US$729,200) and will have their licenses revoked, said the State Administration of Work Safety.
The rule, which goes into effect on October 7, followed a similar order by Premier Wen Jiabao's in July that has gone largely ignored. Since the premier mentioned it, five mine accidents trapped 49 workers in Henan, Shaanxi, Hunan, Gansu and Liaoning provinces without leaders or managers on the scene. And a gas explosion on September 9 at Ma'anshan Coal Mine in Yunnan Province killed seven workers and injured 12.
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