Fifteen miners have been confirmed dead after a gas blowout accident occurred at a coal mine in Hunan Province, central China.
The coal mine accident occurred around 5pm on 25 February at the Dayuan Coal Mine in Longhui County of Shaoyang City when 24 miners were working underground in the shaft. As of 27 February, 15 miners have been confirmed dead and only six miners managed to escape while three other miners were still missing, according to Xinhua News Agency.
A staff member of the Longhui County government told China Labour Bulletin that some families of the deceased miners had already signed the compensation agreement less than 48 hours after the accident occurred.
An official surnamed Huang of the Shaoyang City Trade Union said the amount of compensation was set by the local government and the trade union was not sure how much compensation each victim's family would get. But he added that the victims' families did not demand too much.
However, an official surnamed Wei of the Longhui County government told CLB that the compensation would be calculated in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the Ordinance of Work-Related Injury Insurance. As for the victims' families in this accident, he said the highest amount of compensation they could get would be 250,000 yuan, while the lowest amount would be only 40,000 yuan. The official explained that the mine owner and the mine company could not afford high compensation and the local work-related injury insurance fund was only set up last year and it was not enough to pay the compensation to the victims' families.
A deceased miner's elder brother said his 31-year-old brother was survived by his wife and one 10-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. He told CLB that he learned from officials in his village that his brother's family would be given a compensation of about 120,000 yuan, although they had wanted about 160,000 yuan.
On 5 April 2005, Li Yizhong, director of State Administration of Work Safety, said during a press conference that he agreed with a policy adopted by some provincial governments to give each deceased miner's family for not less than 200,000 yuan of compensation.
Meanwhile, in early 2004, the State Council issued an order to increase the amount of compensation to victims of coal mine disasters. Provinces which currently stipulated the amount of compensation of not less than 200,000 yuan to be given to victims of coal mine accidents included Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and Yunnan.
Sources: Xinhua News Agency (27 February 2006), China Labour Bulletin
28 February 2006