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

Deliberate Failure to Report Accidents
In the Chinese-run copper mines, but particularly NFCA’s underground mine, Human Rights
Watch research found what appears to be a deliberate practice by Chinese management to
underreport accidents and other dangerous occurrences. The result is that government
statistics on accidents in the Chinese mines are significantly lower than the true figure,
reflecting deaths and other severe injuries that are difficult to conceal but not a myriad of
other accidents. Human Rights Watch asked miners from the other multinational copper
mining companies in Zambia whether they faced pressure to not report accidents, but no
one interviewed said that management either encouraged underreporting or punished
individuals who did report. As with other bad safety practices, the problems appear most
acute at the Chinese-run mines.
ILO Convention No. 176 requires employers to ensure “all accidents and dangerous
occurrences, as defined by national laws or regulations, are investigated and appropriate
remedial action is taken” and to provide a report “to the competent authority on accidents
and dangerous occurrences.” 195
A company safety officer employed by NFCA explained to Human Rights Watch the
reporting problems at its underground mine:
There are a lot of accidents as a result of the safety practices, and many of
them aren’t reported to the government safety department. The [relevant
Chinese managers] hide them. When there is a serious accident, like when a
person is killed or incapacitated, that has to be reported. They can’t hide that.
But if it’s a more minor issue, a minor injury, they’ll try to keep it from being
reported. For example, when people are gassed, it’s supposed to be reported,
but it almost never is. Same for when there is damage to equipment from an
accident, from a rock fall for example, but we’re fortunate that no one was
around and hurt…. We see the difference in the records we keep and the
records that go to the government. Consistently, they underreport…. They
don’t want the government to know the real accident figures.
Some accidents aren’t even reported to us. I’ve had workers tell me that
they’re paid to not call in the NFCA safety officers. They’ll take the person
who has been injured from the mine to their home; the Chinese will take
them, so [the person] doesn’t report. So there is underreporting everywhere.
195 ILO Convention No. 176, art. 10(d), (e).
63 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011