Areas of ILO Concern

• Safety and health
• Training
• Industrial relations and employment
• Small-scale mining

Safety and health
Because of the hazardous nature of mining, the ILO has been always deeply concerned with the improvement of occupational safety and health. The ILO's International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses is an internationally recognized tool for recording systematically radiographic abnormalities in the chest provoked by the inhalation of dusts. Two codes of practice on safety and health deal exclusively with underground and surface mines; others are relevant to the mining industry. Additional information can be obtained from the ILO's SafeWork Programme and the ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety.

The adoption of the Convention on safety and health in mines in 1995, which has set the principle for national action on the improvement of working conditions in the mining industry, is important because:

• special hazards are faced by mineworkers;
• the mining industry in many countries is assuming increasing importance;
• earlier ILO standards on occupational safety and health, as well as the existing legislation in many countries, are inadequate to deal with the specific needs of mining.

The Convention came into force in June 1998. As of December 2003, 21 countries had ratified Convention 176 and several others were working towards it.

Training

Photograph by Norman Jennings, ILO.

The ILO has carried out a variety of training projects, workshops and seminars aimed at improving the safety and health of miners through greater awareness, improved inspection, and rescue training. ILO activities have also contributed to bringing national legislation into conformity with international labour standards and to raising the level of occupational safety and health in the mining industry. The ILO supported a project to improve gas detection in small-scale coal mines in Hunan Province, China, in 2004. The ILO is working with the global union federation that represents miners (ICEM) and with the global mining industry (ICMM) in a tripartite attempt to assist Chinese coal mines to make a significant and sustained improvement in their safety and health performance.

Industrial relations and employment

Sound industrial relations based on the constructive application of the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining can make an important contribution to productivity improvement. Close consultation between the social partners, underpinned by meaningful social dialogue, is necessary for restructuring to be successful and for the mining industry as a whole to obtain lasting benefits. Also, social dialogue will be important in ensuring that new flexibility of work organization and work methods do not jeopardize workers' rights, nor adversely affect health and safety.

Small-scale mining

In many countries rural underemployment has led to an upsurge in unregistered, unsafe small-scale mining. To be sure, small-scale mining can enable the exploitation of otherwise uneconomic resources, but often only in the short term.

Photograph by Norman Jennings, ILO.

Small-scale mining also provides considerable employment, particularly in rural areas. Unfortunately many of these jobs are precarious and do not conform with labour standards. Uncontrolled mining has resulted in many accidents and illnesses. The already stretched resources of mining inspectorates have proved no match for this burgeoning activity. In some countries many more people are employed in small-scale, often informal, mining activities than in the formal mining sector.

Upwards of 13 million people engage in small-scale mining, including significant numbers of women and children. About 1 million children under 18 work in artisanal mines, one-third of them under 12 years of age. Moreover, small-scale mining affects the livelihood of 80-100 million. Unfortunately, non-fatal accident rates are routinely six or seven times higher than in larger operations, even in industrialized countries. Moreover, there have been many disasters in recent years at small-scale mines in developing countries when over ten and up to 100 deaths have occurred. That is not to say that there are no safe, clean small-scale mines -- there are, but they tend to be in the minority. Perhaps more important are the occupational and community health risks from mining and processing and the environmental problems that often arise from unregulated, ill-informed mining and processing.

In order for small-scale mining to be prosperous and safe it needs to be raised from being an unorganized, unsupervised activity to one that is modernized, monitored, organized and supported. The absence of employers' and workers' organizations in small-scale mining puts a special responsibility on the State.

Through concerted action to improve the lot of small-scale miners the economic and social benefits of small-scale mining will increase markedly and its integration into formal mining accelerate. To assist in this process the ILO held a tripartite meeting on social and labour issues in small-scale mining in May 1999. The report for this meeting "Social and labour issues in small-scale mines" (see below) set the scene for small-scale mining and contains chapters on women in small-scale mining; child labour in small-scale mines; legislation; relations between small-scale and large mines; and assistance to small-scale mines. Several working papers were also published, dealing with small-scale gold mining in Bolivia, the Philippines and Zimbabwe and child labour in small-scale mines in Niger, Peru and the Philippines. The Report and the Note on the proceedings of the meeting are available in the next section of this page.

The meeting unanimously adopted conclusions and a resolution on small-scale mining that call for action at the national and international levels, and by the ILO, in these areas. The ILO's child labour programme (IPEC) has a number of projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America which address the problems of children working in small-scale mines. The ILO is one of the sponsors of Communities and Small-scale Mining (CASM) whose mission is to support integrated, sustainable community development in developing countries and thereby help to reduce poverty by making small-scale mining a profitable, safe and sustainable activity.

A handbook on safety and health in small-scale surface mines is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Mongolian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Links to other ILO departments with information of concern to mining

World Day Against Child Labour 2005
- On 10 June in Geneva and elsewhere, the World Day Against Child Labour focused on children in mining and quarrying. A campaign of action to remove the 1 million children from this activity by 2015 was launched. Governments from 13 countries made a tripartite commitment to the call for action, together with the global mining industry and global mining trade unions.

International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
- Peru: Project benefits children in gold-mining industry

Department of Communication
- CNN World Report video on small-scale mines. (In 'Previous clips' section.)