Mittal's mines are death traps: report

New Delhi: World's richest Indian, Lakshmi Mittal is in the middle of another controversy. A Sunday Times special investigation report claims that Mittal's mines in Kazakhstan are death traps that allegedly has "slave labour" conditions.

The report carries extensive quotes from unhappy miners claiming that the Arcelor-Mittal company uses equipment that is dangerous and outdated. Over 90 workers have died in the mines since 2004. Miners claim that conditions are worse than in Soviet times.

Last September a gas explosion killed 41 in the Lenina mine. Two years earlier an explosion in the neighbouring Shakhtinskaya mine claimed the lives of 13. "We are being treated by Mittal's people as little more than slave labour," said Sergei, a Lenina miner. "Conditions are far worse than they were in Soviet times."

Other Mittal miners said that some of the machinery and equipment dated back to the 1970s. Unlike in the West, Mittal's Kazakh miners still use shovels for some work and are made to drag 260 lb steel beams to shore up the mine-shafts.

In Kazakhstan, Mittal's company is the biggest employer with 50,000 workers. It generates four per cent of the country's gross domestic product and has been appointed its special envoy to Britain.

Miners alleged that managers routinely withheld part of their salary if the targets were not met, and safety regulations were regularly violated. Kazakhstan is not the only country where Mittal has experienced safety

The report also quotes Mittal defending his company. The steel baron has been quoted saying that health and safety were a "top priority" for Arcelor Mittal that plans to invest 63 million pounds more to improve safety in the Kazakh mines.

Mittal’s Indian counterparts however feel that the language of the report is overheated and over overblown. It could be a case of foreigner bashing now that the foreigner in this case is Mittal. There may be a lot of Brits who do not take the Arcelor Mittal alliance and the subsequent status of the India-born tycoon as the world’s biggest steel baron, they claim.

The report acknowledges that there have been no accidents this year. It quotes Arcelor Mittal as saying that there has been a reduction in the number of accidents in recent times. Though the report does not challenge any of this, it does strolls backward and digs out scandals that are dated.

Mittals were contacted before the publication of the report who stated their position saying that there has been an improvement in the safety measures at the Mittal steel plants and mines in Kazak.

Mittal, whose family's wealth is valued at 19 billion pounds in The Sunday Times Rich List, runs the world's biggest steel producer. This year he donated two million pounds to the ruling Labour.