Tougher punishments for work place safety violations

New work safety laws, which come into effect next month, will see tougher punishments for major work place accidents in China, with penalties up to $20 million yuan ($3.3 million).

The new laws, an amendment to the 12-year-old Work Safety Law is scheduled to go into effect on December 1. The amendment reiterates the value of human life over economic progress and increases penalties by a larger extent.

According to the amendment, major accident at work places will face penalties from 1 to 5 million yuan and extraordinarily serious accidents will be punished with a fine between 5 to 20 million yuan.

The Amendment, approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Aug 31, involves more than 70 changes. It improves accident prevention systems and emergency response systems.

Penalties will also be imposed on the primary individual responsible if the accident occurs due to this person's negligence or wrongdoings, including demotion or dismissal and a fine with a certain percentage of the previous year's income. Once confirmed as responsible for an extraordinarily serious accident, the person can no longer work in the chief decision-making position of companies in the same industrial sector.

The total number of accidents and fatalities in the workplace has been reduced by 2.6 percent and 8.8 percent respectively during the first three quarters of this year. The number of major accidents and extraordinarily serious accidents were reduced by 25.6 percent, the State Administration of Work Safety said on Tuesday.

According to the administration's office, from January to October, the number of coal mine accidents and fatalities were reduced by 15.1 percent and 15.4 percent respectively compared with the same period last year.

As of the end of September, of the 50 major coal producing counties in China, 21 of them achieved zero accident records. The amount of accidents and deaths in the 50 major coal producing counties have respectively dropped by 38 percent and 42.3 percent on a year-on-year basis, according to the work safety watchdog.