Public Defender’s Statement on Death of Miners

According to the reports released on May 9, 2017, an elevator collapsed and fell down from 400m height in the Tkibuli Mindeli mine of Saknakhshiri GIG Group, resulting in the death of four miners in the elevator.

The number of casualties in the workplace increases every year. 58 were killed and 85 were injured in 2016. The absence of effective mechanism of labour inspection contributes to the deterioration of the situation in the country. The Mindeli mine accident and the alarming statistics of the country once again underscore the seriousness of the problem, which has been repeatedly emphasized by the Public Defender of Georgia over the last 4 years. The Public Defender has been calling on the Parliament and the Government of Georgia to adopt proper safety regulations and provide an effective mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the regulations.

The Public Defender considers that those who have objected labour inspection for years are responsible for every single case of death and damage in the workplace.

The Public Defender expresses his condolences over the deaths of miners, expresses sympathy with the miners’ family members and calls on the Government and the Parliament to take steps to ensure labour safety and create an appropriate normative base, as well as an independent state body, which will be authorized to issue mandatory instructions and use appropriate sanctions and will oversee the implementation of the required regulations of labour safety. The current service, which lacks strict standards of labour safety and does not have any mechanism for taking coercive measures, is a pseudo system and cannot provide actual safeguards.

Ombudsman.ge