“You'll Be Fired if You Refuse” - Human Rights Watch

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
While there has been progress since when they first started mining in Zambia, the
Chinese operations—NFCA underground mining, Sino Metals, and Chambishi Copper
Smelter in particular—frequently fail to provide prompt replacement of “personal
protective equipment” to employees. All too often, this leads directly to unnecessary
workplace accidents and health consequences. In contrast to the practices at the
Chinese-run copper mines, miners interviewed from the other multinational
companies—specifically, Mopani Copper Mines, Konkola Copper Mines, and
Kansanshi—said their companies have a standard procedure in which they were able to
obtain a replacement when their PPE was damaged during work (see text box, below,
on “Best practices in the Copperbelt”).
ILO Convention No. 176 requires employers to “provide and maintain at no cost to the
worker suitable protective equipment [and] clothing as necessary.” 121
Miners at the Chinese copper mining operations said that their employers had improved
considerably at providing PPE since first starting work in Zambia. Until several years ago, the
Chinese companies often did not provide any protective equipment; at best, workers might
receive a few of the items they needed, as described by an underground miner at NFCA:
It was in 2008 and 2009 that the union really took up the issue of PPE, that
the Chinese had to provide work suits and boots, hard hats, and the other
necessary equipment. Before you were lucky to get a couple pieces, but you
would never get close to what is required by the mining regulations. Those
efforts in 2008 and 2009 paid off. But even though it’s better, we still face
problems with PPE that don’t exist in other mines. 122
A worker in the Chinese-owned smelter, CCS, likewise said:
When we first started, the safety situation was very, very bad. They did not
give us the required PPE. We worked with no equipment and were exposed
to lots of problems. People were often burned from the acid…. The Mines
Safety Department finally intervened after lots of complaints, and now we
get leather suits, shoes for the smelter, leather gloves, and a face shield. It
121 ILO Convention No. 176, art. 9(c).
122 Human Rights Watch interview with underground drill operator A at NFCA, Chambishi, November 5, 2010.
39 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011