Human Rights Watch says miners’ safety is ‘at serious risk’ in Georgia
The 60-page research says that that the risk is caused by ‘insufficient government regulation and resulting mining practices. Photo: Georgian Journal.
Tweet 
Share
'The safety of workers in Georgia’s mines is at serious risk,’ reads the beginning of the first paragraph of the Human Rights Watch research ‘No Year without Deaths’: A Decade of Deregulation Puts Georgian Miners at Risk.’
The 60-page research that has been published today, says that the risk is caused by ‘insufficient government regulation and resulting mining practices that prioritise production quotas and put workers’ safety in jeopardy.’
Human Rights Watch reports that the research ‘documents how weak labour protections and limited government oversight have allowed mining practices that undermine safety to flourish.’
The research says that the Georgian Manganese company, the largest manganese producer operates 11 mines as well as a processing plant and has about 3,500 workers.
Human Rights Watch enquired the workers at GM mines who said that ‘because they work 12-hour shifts underground, including at night, for 15 straight days, they are often exhausted, and they have faced penalties for failure to make quotas.’
The research also reads that the coal miners for Saknakhshiri LLC also said the working conditions heighten risks to safety and labour rights.
“Human Rights Watch cited other practices at odds with workers’ rights. These include long hours, inadequate breaks, and no weekly rest days, non-payment of overtime hours, failure to provide copies of written contracts, and unfair wage deductions,” the report reads.
Human Rights Watch also recalls the death of 10 miners in two accidents in 2018 underlining that Georgia ‘was shaken.’
In conclusion, the research says that mining companies should respect workers’ rights and the safety of their employees in Georgia and work with employees to conduct reforms aimed at improving safety.
More than 400 workers have died in the workplace between 2010 and 2018, official data of the Interior Ministry of Georgia read.
The full research is available here.
The director of the Khimini Service 2 construction company has been detained earlier today for the violation of safety rules, which claimed the lives of two workers on Chavchavadze Avenue in Central Tbilisi on March 31, 2019.
The government of Georgia has declared April 6 as a mourning day after an accident in a mine in west Georgia claiming six lives and injuring three.One of the three mine workers injured in today’s accident has told Georgian Economy Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili that he has never witnessed anything of the sort before - he said that the reason behind the accident early this morning was a coal mine bump.
A miner died last night during underground works in Shukruti mine in the village of Chiatura - a city in the western Georgian region of Imereti.
Two miners have died at an open extraction coal quarry in Tkibuli town this morning. The bodies are already being examined to identify the circumstances of death.
Human Rights Watch has released its annual review of human rights around the world including in Georgia, reflecting developments in 2020. The report on Georgia focuses on COVID-19, parliamentary elections, lack of accountability for law enforcement abuses, freedom of media, labour rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, drug policy and key international partners.