Worker sues AngloGold for R2.6m
09/10/2006 11:18
By: Allan Seccombe
Johannesburg - A R2.6m law suit will be brought against AngloGold this week for a worker whose lungs and health are alleged to have been damaged working on one of the company's South African mines. It is seen as a test case that could cost the industry and government billions of rands.
A summons will be served on AngloGold Ashanti on Monday and will be brought by a prominent South African human rights lawyer Richard Spoor and Charles Abrahams.
AngloGold Ashanti was aware that some lawyers were considering their options, but it did not have specific knowledge about the summons, said Steve Lenahan, the executive officer in charge of the company's corporate affairs.
"We will not comment until we have seen the nature of the case," he told Miningmx.
At the root of the case lies the challenge of the constitutionality of compensation legislation that restricts payouts to miners injured at work to about a tenth of what workers in other industries are eligible for.
Under South African law workers cannot sue their employers for injuries sustained at work and neither can dependents of those killed.
Spoor was not immediately available for comment, but he told Miningmx in July the case promises to be difficult to pursue because similar cases in the past have failed because of legislation preventing workers from suing their employers.
"The worst thing about it is the victims are being erased by time. They're dying like flies. Every single day companies' liabilities shrink through the passage of time. That's an incredibly depressing notion," he said.
Spoor has raised the question whether a point has now been reached where corporates can no longer hide behind the law. "We want to know the immunity the companies ostensibly enjoy in terms of the legislation and whether that immunity will withstand scrutiny by the courts."
According to the Sunday Independent story, bringing compensation for mineworkers up to the level of other industries will cost R10bn, while paying every worker in southern Africa, where the mines draw their labour from, would cost R100bn.
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