RATIFY ILO CONVENTION 176 (NSEMPA, PAGE 10, DEC 20, 2010)

By Collins Agyekum-Gyasi, Obuasi

THE Ghana mine workers union (GMWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the government to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 176 on safety in the mines, which was adopted on June 22, 1995, at the 82nd Session of the ILO General Conference at Geneva.
Brother Prince William Ankrah, General Secretary of GMWU, regretted that since 1995 when the convention was adopted no government in the country had ratified it, even though it is central to eusuring decent work in an industry, which had occupational safety and health hazards as its main challenges.
Bro. Ankrah was flanked by Bro. John Kwadwo Brempong, National Chairman, and some executive members from both the national and Obuasi branches of the GMWU.
“Convention 176 provides the necessary basis for a sustainable the mining industry that ensures that its workers return from their workplaces safe and healthy and that companies can attract and retain workers.” he emphasised.
He observed that the convention defined mining to cover surface or underground sites where exploration for minerals that involve the mechanical disturbance of the ground, extraction of minerals, preparation, including crushing, grinding, concentration or washing of the extracted material and all machinery, equipment, appliances, plant, buildings and civil engineering structures were used in conjunction with these activities.
Bro. Ankrah said existing mining regulations were biased against miners except Convention 176 that seeks to protect the health, safety and welfare of the miners.
Mining, he observed, has resuscitated the country’s economy and, therefore, it was time for the establishment of effective procedures to ensure the implementation of the rights of workers and their representatives to be consulted on matters and to participate in measures relating to safety and health at the workplaces, among other things, adding that serious mining nations had long adopted the convention.
The convention, in part, mandates the employer to assess all risks and deal with them in the following order of priority: eliminate risk, control the risk at source, minimise the risk by means that include the design of safe work systems and insofar as the risk remains. The employer also has to provide for the use of personal, protective equipment, having regard to what is reasonable, practical and feasible to good practice and the exercise of due diligence.
He said workers, under the convention, had the right to report accidents, dangerous occurrences and hazards to the employer and to competent authority, and request and obtain attention where there was cause for concern on safety and health grounds.
In like manner, the workers have the duty of complying with prescribed safety and health measures, taking reasonable care for their own safety and health and that of other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work.
Concluding, Bro Ankrah said “a member that has ratified the convention may denounce it after the expiration of 10 years from the date on which the convention came into force by an act communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.”