Safety measures in Chilean mines did not improve substantially

Since the 33 miners were rescued in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Chilean government has taken measures to improve the safety of the miners. The number of inspectors at Chile´s mines has increased from 18 to 45 since the incident occurred. According to The Economist, the Chilean government “sent a draft bill to parliament to overhaul mine safety regulation”. However, despite of the work done, Chile still needs to ratify the International Labor Organization´s Convention 176 on mining safety. ILO 176 has been adopted by 25 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe and it started taking place in 1995, more than a decade ago. It upholds the rights of workers to refuse work they consider unsafe. They have the right to leave a mine they consider dangerous or to elect their own health representatives. The government ought to ratify the Convention, and the Chilean president has said to do so, but the ratification has been hold up. As the mining industry constitutes a fifth of the country´s GDP, the government needs more information about the ILO to ensure its profits.

Surprisingly, when the price of the copper lows, the accident rate falls. Chilean miners go to the Atacama Desert in order to search for the mineral without supervision, which strongly increases the rate of mining accidents. The numbers speak from themselves: “the safest year in the history of Chilean mining was 1999, with just 0.09 deaths for every million hours worked. That year copper sold for just 72 cents a pound”.

With the media boom that took place in Chile in August, 2010, when 33 miners were trapped deep underground, the Chilean government succeed. But the challenge is to improve the security measures without skimping. The Chilean government promised to improve the safety measures of the mines, and, although the conditions at work are way better, it is not enough. According to the Chilean legislature, there is not a national organism that regulates and verifies the work conditions of the big mining companies, which makes the process even more complicated. Furthermore, many accidents that occur while the miners head out in search of minerals are not counted as labor accidents in the statistics. In spite of the little success of the Chilean government, Sebastian Piñera needs to ratify the ILO and put into practice the promises made.

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/10/mining-safety-chile