Codelco workers file health compensation claims

A group of 23 mine workers from the Andina division of Chile's state copper corporation Codelco have filed a lawsuit against the company seeking compensation for damaged health, El Mercurio reported. The workers suffer from silicosis, hearing loss, or in some cases both, the report said. Silicosis is a serious respiratory illness caused by a buildup of silica dust in the lungs. They are seeking some 11.5 billion pesos (US$19.2mn) in a class action, which would amount to some US$830,000 each. The money would be on top of the compensation that Codelco has already paid each worker, which they say is insufficient. The group's leader, Manuel Pinto, who worked in the mine's crusher area for some 30 years, has lost a lung and 50% of the use of the remaining lung to silicosis, and suffered partial hearing loss. Codelco awarded him some US$15,600, the report said. In addition, a group of 17 ex-workers have filed a similar class action lawsuit for damage to health which they say was caused during their time with the company. In August, Andina employees staged a protest outside the mine which disrupted access to the site for five hours, to draw attention to the silicosis problem. The exact number of silicosis cases diagnosed at Andina - and other Codelco operations - is disputed because some of the technology used in the diagnosis was not appropriate and may have inflated the figures, Codelco's occupational health director Carolina Vargas was quoted as saying in the paper. Codelco also counters that all its operations are now compliant with ISO 14001 environmental norms. The lawsuits come when Codelco is resolving collective bargaining issues with a number of its unions. Workers are seeking substantial pay raises in line with stronger copper prices, and point out that they had agreed to wage freezes and cutbacks when copper was in the doldrums.