Coal minor

The security system at Russian mines should have been reformed three years ago

Miners from Germany come and ask the Russian miner: “How long have you been working in the mine?” “About 30 years, probably,” the Russian replies. “What, you want to buy this mine?!” the Germans are surprised. This sad story was told to Newsweek at the Raspadskaya mine in Mezhdurechensk, where 66 people recently died and 24 went missing. German miners receive €4,000–7,000 per month, and in 30 years earn a good pension for the rest of their lives. Their Russian colleagues are paid €400-500, and for this money they go to their deaths. “Until we take Molotov cocktails in our hands, everything will be useless. We are considered to be cattle,” said the miners in Mezhdurechensk.

The miners are outraged by the level of salaries in the plant management and especially in the Moscow office, where, they say, the monthly salaries of managers exceed the annual incomes of the miners. This is true. According to the financial report of OAO Raspadskaya, in 2008 nine top managers of the company were paid $4.3 million, which is more than 1 million rubles per person per month. Mine owners get even more. “Billions of dollars are made on us, for which they then build palaces and villas for themselves, and we die in the mines by the hundreds, our people are ruining themselves for a penny,” the Union of Citizens of Kuzbass says in an appeal. As if in confirmation of these words, last Wednesday there was another accident with human casualties at the Alexievskaya mine - this is 150 kilometers from Raspadskaya.

The owners really earn billions from the miners. A small part of this money is spent on the safety of people, and the main investments go to the modernization of equipment - for example, to the purchase of imported machines that allow us to produce more. The risks of explosions and collapses are only growing - after all, the two most important problems regarding the safety of people have not been resolved. The first is a wage system that forces miners to cheat on emergency sensors in order to keep working. The second problem is that the latest technologies for the preliminary removal of gas from coal seams are not used in Russia. Degassing is the most important preventive measure, experts are sure. But mine owners have a different logic: these are additional costs.

Before the accident in Kuzbass, Rostekhnadzor asked the court four times to remove the general director of Raspadskaya from his post. But all to no avail. Now CEO Igor Volkov left on his own, and Rostekhnadzor was reassigned to the government by the decision of the prime minister. The department will have the right to suspend the management of mines where violations have been committed. However, the miners fear that everything will be the same as in 2007. At that time, accidents happened at several mines at once, a heated discussion began in the government, and then, as it turned out, they simply forgot about the problem.

DEATH TARIFF

Experts say miners often cheat on emergency systems. They are forced to do this by the piece-bonus system of wages left over from Soviet times. When the concentration of methane in the air exceeds 1.3% (explosive level - 3-4%), the emergency system should work. She informs the duty officer about the emergency situation and de-energizes the combine. There is a threat to overwhelm the plan and lose money. In the 1980s, when the current chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Miners, Alexander Sergeev, worked at Raspadskaya, the sensors were simply covered with jerseys.

Now they are sealed with duct tape. And everyone knows about it. “Twelve people go to the mine, and the chief says: we need to give a million [tons of coal according to the plan], - says one of the former miners of Raspadskaya. - If you do not give, then the salary is two times less. And now someone just wraps this sensor. Everyone else sees it." This happens with the tacit consent, and even with the oral instructions of the authorities, Sergeev agrees. “The miner says: Yes, there is gas! And the boss: you know what to do,” he says.

The current system, pushing for deadly violations, is fixed in an industry agreement signed by Rosugleprof (the official union of coal miners) with mine owners. According to this document, the miner's earnings consist of three parts. The first is the fixed tariff part. The main person in the mine - a mining worker of the fifth category - receives 66 rubles 38 kopecks per hour. This is the highest bid. Most often, such workers have the fourth or even third category. And this is 58 rubles per hour or less. Thus, according to the tariff, workers receive about 7,600 rubles a month.

Another part - different surcharges. Northern allowances, bonuses for work in harmful conditions, as well as "running" - a fee for the passage from the lift to the start of slaughter. About 10,000 rubles are collected. And the biggest part is the prize, says Sergeev. It is 50-70% of income and is paid if the link fulfills the plan.

It's no secret that this scheme was imposed by the owners. “Otherwise, the miners will not work,” explains a representative of one of the large companies. “In the Far East, during spawning, half of the miners take sick leave and go poaching.”

The Independent Miners' Union has been fighting wage wars since 2004. Rosugleprof, as its chairman Ivan Mokhnachuk assures, since 2007. However, in 2009, he nevertheless signed an agreement that makes such a wage system legal. “We came to this compromise during negotiations with the owners,” he explained to Newsweek. Now Vladimir Putin has recommended that the trade union leader and the owners revise the agreement and bring the ratio of “permanent salary to bonus” up to a ratio of 70 to 30.

In America, such a system was abandoned 30 years ago. There is now time wages. As a result, accidents have decreased. “I went to them, saw their harvesters. I ask - are you deceiving security sensors? Sergeyev says. Why, they wonder. Blocking works - it means that it is necessary. ” It should be the same in Russia, the miners are sure. However, their security does not depend on salary alone.

GAS CHAMBER

In 2006, the management of Raspadskaya applied for an expert opinion on the design of one of the sections of the mine. This document came to the leading employee of the Institute of Mining of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Skritsky - then he worked at the Institute of Mining Rescue. Skritsky gave a negative conclusion. Mainly because the management did not take into account such a danger as the occurrence of endogenous fires. This is when coal, due to chemical reactions, ignites spontaneously underground, then ignites methane, and coal dust acts as the main explosive. It is possible that events at Raspadskaya also developed according to this scenario. After all, a methane explosion in itself does not lead to a catastrophe - several people standing near the hearth burn themselves. But when coal dust explodes, the scale of the tragedy increases significantly.

The technology for the prevention of underground fires has long been developed. In America and Australia, for example, it is forbidden to mine coal without prior degassing. An undeveloped formation is drilled from the surface, water is pumped in under pressure, and then it is pumped out with the help of pumps. Following the water, a part of the methane also comes out. In the US, this gas is not emitted into the atmosphere, but is used. A power plant operating on such gas is now being built in China. “But we don't have a methodology for the industrial extraction of methane, we don't have a scientific base, we don't have a regulatory framework,” says Oleg Misevra, co-owner of Sakhalinugol. Its mine is one of the few where degassing is carried out. But most importantly, coal miners cannot sell the produced gas - the monopoly on its trade belongs to Gazprom. As a result, degassing in Russia is an absolutely unprofitable process.

Miners are confident in the need for degassing. However, if it is applied, the cost of a ton of coal will increase by about 10%, Sergeyev says. Representatives of the miners are well aware that the owners will not spend money on their own initiative. Amendments obliging owners to carry out degassing began to be developed back in 2007, after accidents at the Ulyanovsk, Yubileynaya and Komsomolskaya mines, when 160 people died. This bill lay under the shed for two years, but after the disaster at Raspadskaya, its passage in the State Duma went at a cosmic speed. Within a week the document was approved by the Energy Committee of the Duma, the Council of the Duma, and last Friday it was adopted in the first reading.

According to the new rules, the threshold values ​​for methane emissions, upon reaching which degassing should be carried out at the mine, will be set by officials. Most likely - from Rostekhnadzor. Last week, Vladimir Putin gave carte blanche to this agency. He was removed from the structure of the Ministry of Natural Resources, directly subordinated to the government and endowed with very broad powers. For example, stop work at the mine and remove its management. Experts fear that this will not work: the owners will always be able to negotiate with the inspectors.

It is also unclear who will monitor the implementation of Putin's recommendation to change the terms of the tariff agreement. Rostekhnadzor told Newsweek that it was none of their business. Now the office of the Prosecutor General is open at the Raspadskaya mine. The problem is that the current tariff system is absolutely legal. It will be difficult for prosecutors to find fault with anything.

Artem Vernydub took part in the preparation of the material