NSC RECOMMENDATION ON CONTRACT MINING

AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION

BRIEF ABOUT NSCNational Safety Conference was first held in Calcutta on 5th-6th August, 1958. Till today ten safety conference s have been held. Its Purpose is to improve Safety Awareness in mining industry and to prevent Mine Disaster. The thrust area of 10th Safety conference was on Contractor working.OBJECTIVE OF NSC It provides platform to improve safety standard, health and welfare of persons employed in mines.

CONTRACT MINING & ITS BACKGROUND

Increased demands of infrastructure and industrial growth in the country have necessitated quantum jump in production of minerals, coal, oil and natural gas during the past two decades. Multi-national companies joining in mining sector has changed not only the organizational structure of the companies but also the nature of employment which is drifting from Company’s Owned employment to Contractual Employment through outsourcing of whole or part of the mining operations such as loading and transportation, enrichment and beneficiation to safety and security.

MAIN FOCUS

The main focus of contractors is on production.

They are least concerned about safety, which may leads to any kind of incident/accident.

This is due to their lower rate which they fix in their tender paper to win the tender.

EMPLOYMENT & ACCIDENT SCENARIO

An exercise on fatality to contractual employees in coal mines during the past decade was

conducted by DGMS which revealed that:-

Although overall employment in coal mines has reduced from 4,48,264 in the year 2000 to 3,73,950 in 2010 i.e. 16.58% reduction but the contractual employment has increased from 10,123 in 2000 to 29,449 in the year 2010 i.e. almost 3 times increase. The percentage of increase in contractual employment is about 4 times during the period.

 

Overall fatality rate in coal mines varies from 0.21 to 0.31 per thousand persons during thelast decade. The

fatality rate in within company’s owned employees vary from 0.21 to 0.30 `whereas within the

contractual employees it varies from 0.52 to 1.14 per thousand persons which is 2.47 to 5.42 times the

fatality rate of Company’s owned employees.

The reasons of more fatality amongst contractual employees were also analyzed which revealed that:-

Long hours of work leading to tiredness and fatigueLack of work knowledge and ignorance to

apprehended hazards and dangers associated with work, working places and environment

Deployment of unskilled contractual employees in place of skilled employee’s jobs without supervision

Exposure of contractual employees on jobs with higher levels of risks and under hazardous condition

Non-provision of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and also not using such PPEs wherever provided

Statutory supervision from contractor’s side is poor.

PREVENTIVE MEASURESIn the light of the above, the following measures are

required to be taken to reduce the trends of fatality of contractual employees in the mines and activities

incidental to or connected therewith:

Contractual Employees should be selected on the basis of their educational, professional job-need based qualifications.

Initial Training and skill development programmes should be framed on the basic of skill required which should be imparted for special period under constant supervision and monitoring by specialists.

After completion of initial training and skill development exercise, such employees should put on job training under skill employees with supervision of competent person.

Normal or regular jobs to contracture employees should be given only after undergoing above stages of training.

Extended hours of work, exposure to risk and hazardous places and operations and development on skill jobs should not be allowed for contracture employees.

Initial and periodic medical examinations including occupational safety and health surveillance of all contractual employees shall be conducted by an expert agency once in at least 3 years or at leaser interval.

Adequate lighting arrangement should be provided.Adequate supervision & safe operating procedure should

be provided by contractor.

ABOUT CONTRACT MINING AT MATA NO MADH PROJECT

Brief Description of the Contractors

At present there are mainly two contractors working at Mata No Madh Lignite Project:

M/S. P C PATEL & CO. _ for the removal of overburden.

M/S. UNIQUE INFRACON PVT. LTD. _ for lignite loading operation.

Implementation of NSC Recommendation

NSC CLAUSE NO. RECOMENDATION IMPLEMENTATION

10th NSC Simultaneously with creation of facilities for OHS, it is also necessary to improve quality of life of employees working in Mining Industry by provision of well planned Housing Colonies provided with all modern facilities such as good drinking water, good sanitation, drainage and recreational facilities.

All of these facilities have been provided by the Contractors to their employees.R.O.Plants having capacity of 200 ltr/hour each have been set up at the contractors’ camp.NASA Toilet arrangement have been set up for the truck drivers & cleaners.

1.3 (b)

1.8 (a) Before the valid Gate pass is issued for entry of trucks and other vehicles, not belonging to Management into the mine, the Mine Engineer should check the road worthiness of such vehicles.

We have deputed mechanics in all the three shifts round the clock to check the road worthiness of the vehicles.

1.9 Persons engaged in surface operations and in particular the contractor workers, who incidentally are often inexperienced and least, informed about job safety matters, need closure and more competent supervision. To minimize accidents due to surface operations, it would be ensured that :

Implemented as follows

1.9 (a) All persons engaged at any work within the mine premises through the contractors have received relevant training and other job-related briefings and that the drivers of vehicles belonging to contractors entering the mine premises have additionally been explained the salient provision’s of “Traffic Rules”.

Management provides Vocational Training to all the contract persons before commencing their job. They are also explained job related briefing and the salient provision of traffic rules.

2.1 Employer’s Responsibilities

2.1 (a) Suitable clauses (in consistence with risk of the work allotted) shall be included in tender document (including NITs) stating how the risk arising to men & material from the mining operation / operations to be done by the contractors shall be managed.

Higher management & Tender Committee is requested to include the suitable clauses in consistence with risk of the work alloted in tender document (incl.NIT) & how to overcome from these risk .

2.1 (b) Ensure that contractors are familiar with the relevant parts of the statute, health and safety management system and are provided with copies of such documents prior to commencing work

It should be ensured from his past exprience that contractors are familiar with the relevant parts of the statute, health and safety management system & possess all necesary documents before participating in tender.

2.1( c) ( i ) Ensure that contractor’s arrangements for health and safety management are consistent with those for the mine owner. All the rules, regulations and bye-laws as applicable to the mine owners are also applicable to the contractor.

The tender committee is requested to include this clause in NIT & tender documents should be mandatory for the contractors.

2.1 ( c) ( ii) Details of the contractor’s workmen should be maintained in the owner’s Form-B Register.

Details of Contractor’s workmen are maintained in Form-B Register.

2.1( c) ( iii) Whereas, C, D & E Registers for contractor men may be maintained independently by the owner. All the above Registers shall be kept in the mine office of the manager.

“D” & “ E” Registers are being maintained by contractors & kept at Manager’s office.

2.1(d) Ensure that contracts should preferably be of longer period (three years), so that there is adequate scope of management of safety by the contractor.

All of the Contractors are working for more than 3 years.

2.1(e) Ensure that contractor’s provide the machinery, operator and other staff with written safe work procedures for the work to be carried out, stating clearly the risk involved and how it is to be managed.

Safe Operating Procedure has been prepared by contractor & management and provided to the operator & staff . And work is carried out accordingly.

2.1 ( f) ( i ) Monitor all activities of the contractors to ensure that contractors are complying with all the requirements of statute and the system related to safety.

Proper monitoring is carried out by the safety personnel to ensure that contractors are complying with all statute requirements & system related to safety.

2.1 ( f) ( ii) If found non-compliant of safety laws directing the contractor to take action to comply with the requirements and for further non-compliance, the contractor may be suitably penalized.

In case of non compliance of the safety laws, warning letter is issued to that contractor.

2.1 ( f) (iii) Clause to this affect may be a part of the agreement between the employer & the contractor.

The tender committee is requested to include this important clause in the agreement between the employer & contractor.

2.1(g) Where a risk to health or safety of a person arises because of a non-compliance directing the contractor to cease work until the non-compliance is corrected.

2.2 Contractor’s Responsibilities

2.2 (a) Prepare written safe operating procedure (SOP) for the work to be carried out, including an assessment of risk wherever possible and safe methods to deal with it / them.

Written Safe Operating Procedure has been prepared which includes an assessment of risk & safe method of operating. It is discussed with the Concerned workers time to time.

2.2 (b) Provide a copy of the SOP to the person designated by the mine owner who shall be supervising the contractor’s work.

Copy of SOP has been given to all of the contract supervisors.

2.2 ( c) Keep an up to date SOP and provide a copy of changes to a person designated by the mine owner.

Copy of the updated SOP regarding any changes from time to time is provided to all of the concerned persons.

2.2 (d) Ensure that all work is carried out in accordance with the Statute and SOP and for the purpose he may deploy adequate qualified and competent personnel for the purpose of carrying out the job in a safe manner.

Working is being carried out in accordance with the statue and SOP. All Contractors have been instructed to appoint qualified & competent personnel to carry out this job.

2.2 (e) For work of a specified scope / nature, develop and provide to the mine owner a site specific code of practice.

In case of a specific scope/ nature, site specific code of practice has been developed.

2.2 (f) Ensure that all sub-contractors hired by him comply with the same requirement as the contractor himself and shall be liable for ensuring compliance all safety laws by the sub or sub-sub contractors.

No sub-contractors is hired in the Mata No Madh Project.

2.2 (g) All persons deployed by the contractor for working in a mine must undergo vocational training, initial medical examination, PME. They should be issued cards stating the name of the contractor and the work and its validity period, indicating status of VT & IME.

Contractors have provided VT, IME/PME to all of their employees. VT card have been issued to all of them indicating contractor’s name, kind of work, validity period & status of VT & IME.

2.2 (h) (i) Every person deployed by the contractor in a mine must wear safety gadgets to be provided by the contractor.

Safety gadgets are provided by contractors to their staffs.

2.2 (h) (ii) If contractor is unable to provide, Owner / agent / manager of the mine shall provide the same.

2.2 (i) (i) The contractor shall submit to DGMS returns indicating – Name of his firm, Registration number, Name & address of person heading the firm, Nature of work, type of deployment of work persons, Number of work persons deployed, how many work persons hold VT Certificate, how many work persons undergo IME and type of medical coverage given to the work persons.

Contractors submit their quarterly return to DGMS. 

2.2 (i) (ii) The return shall be submitted quarterly ( by 10th of April, July, October & January) for contracts of more than one year. However, for contracts of less than one year, returns shall be submitted monthly

2.3 (b) An employee must, while at work, cooperate with his or her employer or other persons so far as is necessary to enable compliance with any requirement under the act or the regulations that is imposed in the interest of health, safety and welfare of the employee or any other person.

For this , we have started group discussion on the site with safety briefings which increases safety awareness & cooperation among the workers.

4.4 Portability tests of drinking water supplied to the mine employees, to be made mandatory once in a year irrespective of its source, preferably after Rainy seasons, the sample of water should be collected from the points of consumption.

R.O Plant has been set up to supply purified drinking water to the workers. Portability test is also being conducted quaterly .

4.5 Initial Medical Examination shall be made mandatory for all mining employees whether permanent, temporary or contractual, before they are engaged in any mining job.

No workers are allowed in mining job without IME

4.6 The frequency of PMEs should be brought down from existing five years to three years for the mining employees above 45 years of age. This should be implemented in three years.

This Provision has been followed up properly.

4.7 Standards of medical examination for both Initial and Periodic should be modified as mentioned below in order to ensure early diagnosis of more diseases caused or get aggravated due to employment in mines.

Medical Examination for the departmental employees has been carried out from NIMH, Nagpur. All contractors have been instructed to make this examination from NIMH, Nagpur for their employees.

9.1 Every mine should employ a sound risk analysis process, should conduct a risk assessment and should develop a safety management plan to address the significant hazards identified by the analysis / assessment.

Safety Management Plan has been prepared and implemented.

THANK YOUS.G.VARMA

(Mining Engineer)