Editorial Bonus system not cause of minefatalities

There’s a disturbing pattern emerging in mine safety statistics. While lost-time accidents have shown a significant decline over the past several years, mine fatalities have not been reduced at all. In fact, in Ontario last year there were 19 accidental deaths, the worst year for mining fatalities since 1980.

The emphasis on mine safety over the past decade has been to reduce lost-time injuries, and significant progress has been made. Common sense indicates that if working conditions and procedures are improved enough to reduce injuries, fatalities would also be reduced. After all, fatalities are the result of the most extreme injuries.

But that hasn’t happened. And it is cause for worry.

In Ontario’s Throne Speech last November, the Liberal government asked the legislature’s standing committee on resources development to recommend ways of reducing fatalities in the province’s mines. As Canada’s leading mineral producing province, it is worth noting some of the recommendations the committee did make.

Two recommendation centre on a highly controversial aspect of mine production, the bonus system. Significantly, the committee does not recommend that production bonuses be discontinued.

The Burkett Commission, a joint federal-provincial inquiry into safety in Ontario mines, in 1980 recommended that the bonus system for small crews and individuals be discontinued and that legislation outlawing them be implemented if necessary. That commission felt that the bonus system compromised safety by prompting workers to over extend or abuse equipment, work too quickly or take short cuts in order to earn more money.

There’s no doubt that the bonus system is deeply entrenched in the industry. Half of all underground miners earn a bonus with workers earning from 120% to 200% of their base rate through bonuses.

But studies since 1980 by the Ontario Mining Association and by Laval University found there was no direct link between bonus incentive plans and accident rates. Training and retraining, for example, have a much more significant impact, those studies found.

That recommendation of the Burkett Commission was never implemented. And this latest committee also found insufficient evidence to recommend that the bonus system be done away with.

Another significant series of recommendations concerning large mines and smelters is that a new position be created for a “worker safety representative.” This representative would be on the company’s payroll but would be selected by the workers. And the committee recommends that these representatives have some significant powers, specifically that they could halt any operation they deemed to be unsafe.

Inco and some other mining companies have already adopted this procedure through collective agreements with the unions involved. Based on the success of the program at those mines, it is worth putting into legislation, not just a contract between the union and management.

Currently, other than those mines where a collective agreement establishes a worker safety representative, workers can refuse to go into a workplace that they feel is unsafe. The workplace’s health and safety committee would then try to resolve the situation with the ministry of labor having the final say on whether or not the workplace is safe enough for the worker to enter. However, what one worker refuses to do, another on the next shift may find acceptable.

The all-party committee unanimously endorsed a total of 50 recommendations made in the report. The report will be referred to the legislature where it will be debated. Because the mandate for study came from a Throne Speech, it will also be referred to Mines Minister Sean Conway. It will be his responsibility to recommend which recommendations, if any, be implemented.

The government has indicated it is committed to reducing fatalities in Ontario mines. It should make use of this committee’s report to help it attain that goal.