SPECIAL REPORT: How can we build an international labour court?

SPECIAL REPORT

From Global Worker No 1 June 2022

Theme: Global labour dispute resolution mechanism

Text: Walton Pantland

A role for the ILO

The closest thing to an international labour court is the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS), which hears reports of workers’ rights violations during the International Labour Conference every summer. But CAS only hears complaints against governments, not companies, and has little power to sanction.

It is technically feasible for the ILO to manage global labour arbitration through an international agreement, such as the UNPCCC agreement on emissions (the Paris Agreement) or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, this depends on political will from member states, which is currently lacking.

The ILO building in Geneva. Picture: Marcel Crozet/ILO

The ILO 

The ILO was founded in 1919 to create institutionalized compromise between capital and labour, managed through tripartite structures with the state, and overseen by standards set by an international body. 

The impetus for the creation of the ILO – the oldest international organization in the UN system – was a response to the First World War and a fear of revolution. After the war tore apart the structure of the old world, revolutionary waves spread through Russia, Germany and elsewhere. The governments of the world realized that without social justice, there would be no peace, and set about creating a global body to govern the world of work through social dialogue.

As the threat of revolution faded, and capitalist realism came to dominate, there has been a retreat from the values of the ILO. States have colluded to undermine the right to strike, and ILO Conventions are often not respected. The global resurgence of authoritarian regimes means that there are growing violations of workers’ rights worldwide. Even in advanced democracies, labour laws have been loosened or avoided with the development of platform work, and workers’ rights have taken a significant step backwards.

Despite the decline in the influence and status of the ILO, the need to manage capital and prevent its worst excesses remains, and the idea of a global deal between capital and labour has reasserted itself in other ways. In the absence of a robust international system upheld by global social dialogue, a patchwork of measures has emerged to hold companies to account. 

Due diligence legislation

Many consumers are appalled to learn that the products they buy are produced by exploited workers, and have demanded action from companies and governments; the result has been a growing body of legislation governing global supply chains.

The most advanced of these is the German supply chain legislation, the Lieferkettengesetz. From 1 January 2023, workers and their advocates will be able to sue German companies in German courts for environmental and human rights breaches, including breaches of workers’ rights.

Similar legislation, less ambitious but with the same goal, exists in other countries too, and the European Commission has proposed a Directive on due diligence. If this is passed by the European Parliament, it will be transposed into the national legislation of member states.

Another avenue for remedy is the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The Guidelines are not legally binding, but each of the 50 adhering countries has a National Contact Point which handles grievance resolution. Negotiations are also underway for a UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights.

The International Labour Conciliation and Arbitration mechanism

 

IndustriALL’s action plan, adopted at Congress in 2021, calls for the development of an International Labour Conciliation and Arbitration (ILCA) mechanism to enforce binding agreements between global unions and multinational corporations.

In 2016, IndustriALL and UNI Global filed an arbitration case with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) against two garment brands for violations of the Bangladesh Accord. Based in The Hague, the PCA is an international arbitration service that can resolve contract disputes through arbitration, conciliation and mediation. The Bangladesh case was the first time it was used to resolve a dispute between global unions and multinational corporations.  The first brand reached a settlement in December 2017, and the second, in January 2018. In 2018, the PCA closed the case as the brands met all terms of the settlements, including paying more than US$2.3 million towards remediating unsafe conditions in Bangladesh ready-made garment factories. The Accord distributed the money to eligible factories.

While the victory was important, the process was expensive, time consuming and complex, showing that we need a better way to resolve international labour disputes. In the settlement, the brands also contributed to the global unions’ Supply Chain Worker Support Fund. This was used to fund the development of a more appropriate tool –  an ILCA mechanism, based on The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration. The Hague Rules put into practice the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, creating a robust tool, in line with international standards, that can be included in agreements between global unions and multinational companies. 

Global Framework Agreements

 

The labour movement has taken national collective bargaining to a global level through Global Framework Agreements (GFAs) with multinationals. Since the first GFA was signed between the food workers’ international the IUF and Danone in 1988, many of these agreements have been signed.

GFAs use the collective bargaining power of the union in a multinational’s home country to extend workers’ rights to other countries where the company operates, usually guaranteeing – as a minimum – neutrality and no attempts to stop workers from unionizing. However, although some GFAs have a legal basis under national law, it is difficult to enforce them in all jurisdictions. In some cases, there is no sanction for violation, except withdrawal from the agreement.

To create legally binding GFAs with a mechanism for resolving disputes, an ILCA mechanism needs to be included in global agreements. But companies are reluctant to sign binding agreements, seeing them as restrictive measures that add liabilities without adding benefit.

The International Accord

 

The need to be seen to take action in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster led to many global garment brands signing the legally binding Bangladesh Accord with UNI and IndustriALL Global Unions in 2013. The Bangladesh Accord has now been expanded into an International Accord, focusing on health and safety in the sector. The terms of the International Accord make it legally binding because it is enforceable in the signatories’ home country.

Mapping a way forward

 

The absence of a single global system has led to a patchwork of mechanisms to hold companies to account. This patchwork is growing increasingly dense and more complex, and innovative work is being done to piece together global grievance mechanisms from existing components. The most effective way is to negotiate global agreements that include the ILCA. But even in the absence of this, unions have been able to win justice for workers

by combining legislation, OECD Guidelines, commitments made in collective agreements, company codes of practice and so on.

In the textile and garment sector, for example, there are a number of tools that unions use:

Because many developing countries don’t have well developed industrial relations or social security systems, some brands have partnered with unions to develop tripartite social dialogue through the Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT) programme. ACT includes a grievance resolution mechanism, which the parties involved – global brands, supplier factories, global unions and national unions – have agreed to accept as binding.

Many other sectors have their own components which can be brought together to address grievances in a similar way. As this increasingly dense network of laws, agreements and mechanisms grows, the framework for a global system begins to take shape.

The problem of states where workers’ rights are not respected

 

A challenge for a global grievance mechanism made up of a patchwork of national laws and agreements is that they are binding only in some jurisdictions. This arguably gives a competitive advantage to companies based in countries where they are free to violate workers’ rights, and creates an expensive disadvantage for companies which need to demonstrate due diligence. The most obvious example is China, where many of the world’s products are produced by workers who have no right to independent representation. 

However, we should not forget that the USA has failed to ratify core ILO Conventions. Many US states have restrictive anti-union laws, and North American companies have generally failed to sign the International Accord, GFAs and other global agreements. 

Building political will for a global system

 

In the short to medium term, the focus of unions must be on building an increasingly dense network of laws, agreements and obligations to hold companies to account, including integrating the ILCA into GFAs. The more these tools are used, the more precedents will be set.

In the long term, however, we need a binding UN treaty and an ILO Convention on supply chains, as well as a global system of arbitration, managed through the ILO or a separate panel along the lines of the IPCCC. The best way to achieve the political will for this is to demonstrate that a global system is less complex and more just than a patchwork of cobbled together standards. It is in the interests of companies and countries to insist on a level playing field for workers’ rights, in the same way that the World Trade Organization does for trade. 

The best dispute resolution is local: a global arbitration system would function by supporting the development of robust national arbitration systems, with independent unions, employers’ associations and national governments aiming to resolve disputes at the lowest level possible: ideally at the workplace, through the involvement of the union. If this fails, remedy could be sought through the national arbitration system, and only as a last resort through the global system.

For this to work, countries also need to develop social security systems that can distribute remedies to workers, as well as unemployment payments, pensions and so on.

There are growing calls worldwide for basic workers’ rights to be universally recognized and respected. Many workers in developed countries have seen the link between exploitation in developing countries, and lower wages and the erosion of their rights at home. Global labour standards stop the race to the bottom and protect workers everywhere.

Unions need to help shape this call into a global system that can hold capital to account and deliver justice to workers everywhere.

40 000 power loom workers in Pakistan strike for better wages

The workers responded to a call for a strike given by IndustriALL affiliates Pakistan Textile, Garments and Leather Workers Federation (PTGLWF) and Ittehad Labour Union Carpet Industries  Pakistan (ILUCIP) also known as Textile and Power loom workers Federation.

On 26 March, the government announced a 17 per cent raise in the wages for power loom workers, with effect from 1 July. Despite the government mandated raise and several letters and representations from unions, the owners did not increase the wages. The power loom owners closed about 450 units in response to the demands of the power loom workers on 26 July.

However, the district administration in the pretext of resolving the issue is pressurising union leaders to call off the strike and orders prohibiting assembly have been issued. Despite these actions, the union leaders and striking workers are standing strong and have resolved that the strike will continue until employers pay better wages.

Nadeem Parwaz, General Secretary of PTGLWF said:  

“The workers are using a strike which is their right in law as the legally mandated wages are not being paid. Inflation in Pakistan this year is at an all-time high. The government has withdrawn all subsidies and increased the prices of electricity, gas, petroleum and almost all household items, following the demand of the International Monetary Fund. Power loom workers have no choice but to strike for the payment of their wages.”

Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL regional secretary for South Asia says:  

 “We support the power loom workers’ strike and urge the employers and local authorities in Faisalabad to respect workers right to strike, freedom of association, and to be paid living wages.”

10 workers still trapped following Mexico mine collapse

The mine workers were excavating with hand tools in a 60-metre-deep shaft in the Coahuila coalmine when the walls caved in, causing a 34-metre flood in three connected shafts, and trapping 10 mine workers.

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel Lopes Obrador, said at a press conference on 9 August that the federal government had been working since the date of the collapse to rescue the workers trapped in the mine and that divers could be brought in to rescue in the coming hours. He reported that while 10 miners remained trapped, five workers who were rescued received medical attention.

The president gave assurances that he was acting in coordination with the Coahuila state government and the municipal authorities. He stressed that power plants had been installed at strategic points to access the mines, and pumps had been placed in each of the shafts to extract as much water as possible, to ensure immediate access to the mines and to rescue the workers as quickly as possible.
 
He also said that investigations into the incident were underway, and that information had already been gathered on who manages the mines, holds the permits, conducts the inspections, and sells the coal.
 
Meanwhile, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, a Mexican senator and general secretary of the IndustriALL-affiliated Los Mineros union, said that the labour authorities were failing to meet their obligation to inspect or supervise employers in the coal sector, which explains why such tragedies are so frequent.
 
Urrutia also explained that although he had pressed the Senate of the Republic to approve the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 176, which obliges companies to guarantee health and safety in mines, its ratification has been pending since 1995.
 
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in Mexico’s mining sector. Sixty-three men are still buried at the bottom of a coal mine that exploded 16 years ago in Pasta de Conchos, also in Coahuila. Sixty-five miners died in the incident.
 
IndustriALL general secretary, Atle Høie, deplored the incident, and said:
 
“We urge the Mexican government to continue the efforts to get the workers out alive, to investigate the collapse and to hold those responsible to account, to ratify ILO Convention 176 and to ensure proper inspections of coal mining companies.”

IndustriALL-Brazil aims to unionise 10,000 workers

From 1 to 3 August, union leaders from Brazil’s industrial sector met in São Paulo for a workshop on the development of a process and a strategic plan to organise workers in 400 companies in Brazil’s industrial sector, as part of a project supported and implemented by IndustriALL Global Union, IG Metall and IndustriALL-Brazil.
 
During the three-day gathering, the participants developed a work plan for each participant to train ten other union representatives in their grassroots union organisations. By so doing, some 400 union leaders will be involved in organising activities and campaigns.
 
The participants discussed strategies to identify and promote union leaders who can help increase unionisation in Brazil. They also worked in groups to identify the problems, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for organising in their respective factories and unions.
 
Edson Dias Bicalho, general secretary of FEQUIMFAR and a member of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee, stressed the importance of unionisation, and said:
 
“Brazil’s labour reform in 2017 has allowed negotiations between individual workers and the employer. Since then, we have seen a loss of collective rights, because there cannot be strong unions without the mass participation of workers. That’s why we need to reach out to the industry, using modern communication strategies, giving greater visibility to our common struggle, union proposals and the fight for better pay.”
 
IndustriALL-Brazil’s president, Aroaldo da Silva, who was also present for the three days of discussions emphasised the need to strengthen the organisation of workers in the workplace, said:
 
“We need to increase our union membership and representation, to give us more power both in collective bargaining in the workplace and at the negotiating tables of collective bargaining agreements with employers, regional and national governments. If we are not part of the union, we will not the power to face our challenges.”
 
The participants also discussed the role of the union, how to develop a successful organising campaign and learned about organising strategies in Germany and the United States.

Sexual harassment blocks young women’s training in Kenya’s automotive industry

“As a young woman you have the urge to acquire skills, and you are eager to learn, as you are new to the field. However, the opportunities for the artisan training are found in the established garages in the informal sector where most male trainers demand sex from young women as a condition for undergoing training. This causes most young women to change from one workplace to another in search of a suitable place for their learnerships where they can obtain skills and knowledge without being sexually harassed. Imagine you are lying on your back fixing a car, and a man starts groping you anyhow. This dampens your learning experience,” narrated Wambui at the workshop attended by 30 participants including 11 women.

“At one garage I worked for months without touching a spanner: without being given skills learning opportunities. I ended up washing cars simply because no one was willing to mentor me as a trainee. Obviously, I was being punished for refusing sexual advances. In other instances, the male technicians will try to lure you with money by giving you large sums of money for doing minor repairs. But when you reject their advances; they start ignoring you.”

“Women are vulnerable during the beginning of their careers in the auto sector as most of them are not paid wages when undergoing training. What is worse is that there are no support mechanisms for young women who enter the industry, and in most cases, they are on their own. It is only after joining the Amalgamated Union of Kenyan Metal Workers (AUKMW) that I realised that unions could offer support to the young women artisans.”

Wambui says sexual harassment is common in the male dominated informal sector known locally as Jua Kali “hot sun” in Swahili as most of the auto repairs are done in the open roadside garages and workshops.  
 

Rose Omamo, general secretary of the AUKMW and IndustriALL Global Union vice president says:

“Shop stewards must lead on the dialogue on gender-based violence and harassment in the automotive sector and the Jua Kali. The union must advocate for the ratification of Convention 190 to eliminate gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the world of work and for the implementation of Recommendation 206 so that gaps in the current laws are closed. All workers – women and men – should be sensitized on GBVH.” 

Explained Paule France Ndessomin IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa who participated at the meeting.

“Our mindsets must change as unionists if we are to effectively deal with gender-based violence and harassment. Workers must know their rights and existing mechanisms to stop GBVH and must reports violations and act against the perpetrators.”

The AUKMW, an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, and the IndustriALL Sub Saharan Africa regional office, organized the workshop. The AUKMW which organizes workers in the automotive sector, has formed partnerships with the Jua Kali automobile sector to protect workers’ rights.

 

Union wins as Indian court reinstates 150 unfairly dismissed garment workers

On 6 August, an industrial tribunal awarded reinstatement of the 150 workers illegally locked out by the management, along with payment of back wages and seniority benefits.
 

The management of SLAM Clothing, which has a factory near Chennai, locked out workers to stop workers from entering the factory following the union’s demand for the payment of outstanding wages. Instead of engaging with the union or approaching the government for permission to close the factory as is required under law, the management chose to block workers from entering the factory. This means the factory was unilaterally shut by the management who also forged workers’ signatures on the resignation letters.

 

GAFWU raised the matter of the illegal lock-out with the Labour Commissioner’s office. Due to the management's refusal to participate in the conciliation process, there was no agreement reached between the management and the workers. Thus, the Labour Commissioner's office referred the matter to an industrial tribunal for adjudication.
 

The court order granting payment of back wages will help the union fight for the recovery of wages against SLAM Clothing.

 

Palani Bharathi, General Secretary of GAFWU said: 

“Our fight will only intensify from here. We have won the battle in the courtroom but management that arrogantly chose to sit out the entire proceedings still needs to be held accountable for the serious violations of workers’ rights.”

“We applaud the workers’ court victory against the anti-union antics of the management at SLAM Clothing, and hope that this comes as a lesson to some employers that more can be achieved in building industrial peace by listening to workers’ grievances and paying their wages on time,”

says Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL regional secretary for South Asia.

Global brands purchasing practices linked to abuse of garment workers in South Asia

There are several reports of gross violations of workers’ rights in garment manufacturing units in South Asia where most of the production for global apparel brands takes place. Women, who make up more than 80 per cent of the workforce in the sector, experience sexual harassment at work daily. IndustriALL affiliates in the region have repeatedly highlighted the issue, which has worsened over time as production catered for the fast-changing needs of the sector.
 

The abuse of women is systemic, where deeply rooted patriarchy plays a vital role in ensuring the control of women on the shopfloor. The abuse by men in authority is manifested in the form of gender-based violence and harassment. The abuse ranges from groping, touching, leaning, hitting, punching, slapping, pulling hair, offensive comments about their body, sexual jokes, obscene gestures, and offensive text messages, among others.
 

Violence is also used as a tool by management to ensure productivity. Women are constantly mocked — for not working fast enough to meet the production target but also for taking washroom breaks, their attire, menstruation, and pregnancy. A member of an IndustriALL affiliate in India reported that her supervisor threatened her with rape if she failed to complete the work.
 

Affiliates in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh shared that production managers and supervisors frequently seek sexual relationships with workers promising benefits like pay raises, and reduced workloads. Workers who refuse these offers risk punishment, including being fired, due to the power hierarchy between male supervisors and women workers. Threats of dismissals are also frequently used to ‘discipline’ workers on the shopfloor.
 

Anton Marcus, general secretary of IndustriALL affiliate Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union, says:

“Workers are sexually harassed and abused not only on the shopfloor but also while commuting to work, and in their hostel accommodation. We have seen that compared to their male counterparts, female machine operators are subjected to greater criticism and abuse from their supervisors.”

The stigma associated with reporting sexual harassment and laxity in the implementation of the rule of law deters workers from reporting the abuse. This in turn emboldens perpetrators to continue the harassment. In cases where women report abuse, they are often penalized by management to set a precedent for other workers to toe the line. Either they are retrenched on flimsy charges, or they find themselves in the spiral of continuous abuse where their targets are increased, leave denied, wages deducted on arbitrary charges. Sometimes they are transferred to precarious jobs. As a result, affiliates in the region find it extremely challenging to respond to cases of sexual harassment.
 

Rampant sexual harassment reported by our affiliates poses a risk not just to the workers experiencing it, but also to brands sourcing from these workplaces. They are ultimately responsible for working conditions in their supply chains and hence need to ensure that the women working are safe at their workplaces.
 

There are mechanisms now in place such as the RMG Sustainability Council complaint mechanism in Bangladesh and the national monitoring committees set up under the global framework agreement that IndustriALL has with H&M which can deal with issues of sexual harassment, apart from the legal recourse available. The affiliates are educating their membership to use these mechanisms to address sexual harassment. Brands will have to do their part by getting their suppliers to respect and follow these mechanisms.
 

Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL regional secretary for South Asia says:  

“The fight against sexual harassment and gender-based violence is an integral part of the fight for decent work in the supply chains. The responsibility for dealing with this toxicity in the garment supply chain ultimately lies with the big retail brands that profit from the supply chains. Collective action is needed to ensure that brands take responsibility.”

Indonesian unions sign zero-tolerance policy on violence and harassment with companies

Under the leadership of the women’s committee of the IndustriALL Indonesia Council, five social dialogue meetings were held with employers, and 38 companies signed a zero-tolerance policy on violence and harassment with the respective trade unions.

According to the zero-tolerance policy, employers and trade unions commit to reject any forms of violence and harassment in the world of work, covering permanent workers, contract workers, outsourced workers, and others.

Furthermore, employers and trade unions agreed to form a team to handle complaints on sexual violence and harassment. The team’s role is to stress that victims of violence and harassment have the right to lodge complaints and should be provided full protection in terms of safety, privacy, and psychological support.

“This zero-tolerance policy is a good starting point of collaboration among employers, unions, and the government. We believe that the joint committee will lead us to better protection for our members in the world of work, although it is still a long way to go,”

said Ira Laila Budiman, the chairperson of the women's committee of IndustriALL Indonesia.

“This policy that encourages the establishment of joint complaint mechanisms is a good example that hopefully could be replicated by trade unions in other countries. Joint prevention and complaint procedures and mechanisms involving trade unions are proven to be more effective and impartial, and more trusted by the workers who felt better protected,”

said Armelle Seby, IndustriALL director of gender and non-manual workers.
 

In 2019, the Indonesian government supported the adoption of ILO Convention 190 at the centenary International Labour Conference. However, despite various calls from trade unions and civil society organizations, the government is yet to ratify the convention. The ILO website shows that the Indonesian government has submitted the Convention 190 to the competent authority for consideration.

 

Indian unions demand better occupational safety and health for workers

 

The roundtable was organised by IndustriALL Global Union which was represented by its leadership and that of the Indian affiliates. Participants were drawn from officials of the ministry of labour and employment including the chief labour commissioner of India, the directorate general of mines safety and representatives of the public sector coal mining and steel manufacturing companies along with the Confederation of Indian Industry.
 

According to data collected by IndustriALL in 2021, at least 429 accidents occurred in the manufacturing industries, including chemical and pharmaceuticals, mining, and steel, in which more than 352 workers lost their lives and over 700 workers were injured. In the first half of 2022, at least 78 industrial and mine accidents have been reported, killing at least 199 workers and injuring more than 348. It is from this background, and to focus attention on the dangerous state of industrial safety and the steps that need to be taken to prevent industrial accidents, that the roundtable was held. Such ‘accidents’ are vastly underreported in the country. Affiliates demanded that governments and employers must release the information on industrial accidents and make it accessible to trade unions for scrutiny. 
 

Inadequate hazard identification process and risk assessment, lack of training especially for precarious workers, the inadequate number of health, safety and factory inspectors, absence of safety audits of industrial establishments, and government-sanctioned slackness in management’s commitment towards safety at workplaces, among other reasons, contribute to industrial incidents’ occurrence in the country.
 

The state of health and safety further deteriorates as production moves down the supply chain to small and medium enterprises which face the brunt of cost-cutting by large corporations to maximize their own profits. Meagre fines encourage small and medium enterprises to ignore health and safety standards at the workplace. The passing of the new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2019 has changed the role of the factory inspectors.

“The situation is only set to worsen with the new labour code in which the earlier mandatory provisions to ensure workplace health safety have been removed. Now principal employers cannot be subjected to criminal action in case of workers’ death,”

said Sanjay Vadhavkar, general secretary of Steel, Metal and Engineering workers Federation of India (SMEFI) and a member of IndustriALL executive committee.
 

Government officials and mining and steel industry representatives shared that they have several bipartite and tripartite committees on occupational health and safety that meet on a regular basis. They said that they will work to incorporate the demands made by the trade union representative in this roundtable.
 

Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary, IndustriALL Global Union who chaired the roundtable said

“Self-certification under the new labour codes is going to majorly undermine workplace safety in India. We must not forget that workers are the real experts on the matter as they face the risks. Workers have the right to know workplace hazards, the right to refuse or shut unsafe work and the right to fully participate in decision-making and implementation of health and safety policies. Therefore, we demand that governments and employers must engage with unions as equal partners to better health and safety conditions at workplaces.”

At the recently concluded International Labour Conference, delegates adopted a resolution to add the principle of a safe and healthy working environment to the International Labour Organization’s Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. India, as a member of the ILO, will need to take steps to ensure better safety at workplaces.

 

South African mineworkers discuss strategies to prevent injuries and deaths from mine accidents

The campaigns and strategies are aimed at accident prevention in the mining industries and other workplaces that the union organizes. One of the strategies discussed at the meeting is to demand an effective labour inspectorate in the national department of mineral resources and energy. The NUM says the labour inspectors are not consulting with the union therefore making unilateral decisions on Section 54 notices of the Mine Health and Safety Act which stop operations at mines for health and safety reasons. In some cases, inspections are not done, accident reports are not issued as prescribed in the law, and the inspectors have not been seen in some mines for long periods of time.
 

The NUM strategies empower and strengthen the capacity of occupational health and safety and trade union committees at workplaces to play essential roles in reporting accidents and emphasising on the right to stop dangerous work. Further, the union wants the government, and mining companies to provide more labour inspection services.
 

The provision of suitable personal protective equipment for women miners continues to be an outstanding issue. Additionally, the union says heat stress management is being used as an excuse to retrench some women miners and want this unfair labour practice to be stopped.
 

Masibulele Naki, the NUM national secretary for health and safety said:

“Despite the challenges, we are joyful in that the fatalities related to the fall of ground are getting less. This makes us confident that achieving zero harm and zero fatalities is possible. We continue with our campaigns and training on health and safety and so far, we have trained 500 workers, in addition to the regular training that we provide to the health and safety shop stewards.”

Falls of ground – rockfalls, rock bursts and strain bursts – have caused most of the death of mineworkers in South Africa. According to the Minerals Council of South Africa there have been no fall of ground accidents in the first seven months of this year.
 

Speaking at the meeting, Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining and occupational health and safety lead said:

“The NUM must not lose sight of the gains it has made in making South African mines safer for mineworkers. The union’s success stories are a global model for the mining industry. Importantly, the union must continue to protect the lives of workers through health and safety campaigns that help to prevent fatal accidents and emphasize on health and safety as a fundamental right at work. Mining companies must always be reminded to adhere to mine safety standards and ILO conventions.”

He cited Convention 155 (Occupational Health and Safety Convention), Convention 176 (Safety and Health in Mines), and related recommendations.
 

The IndustriALL regional office for Sub Saharan Africa has set up a platform to address the health and safety deficits on the continent. With most African economies relying on the lucrative export of minerals, there are more occupational health and safety challenges in the mining sector where fatal accidents are common and largely unchecked with some mining companies not having accident prevention policies. Although health and safety laws exist, implementation and enforcement remain a challenge. In some countries failure to enforce the legislative framework is often attributed to lack of financial resources to employ enough labour inspectors.