Labour Administration Reforms in China

[Excerpt] This publication provides an explanation of the comprehensive labour administration system in China, including its recent advances, with emphasis on its public services functions, such as public employment, labour inspection and social insurance services. With the recent improvements to both the legal framework and the institutions of labour administration, it is believed that these public services will play bigger and more active roles in ensuring compliance with legislation and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employers and workers alike

Adapting to climate risks and extreme weather: guide for mining - minerals industry professionals

AbstractExtreme weather events in Australia over recent years have highlighted the costs for Australian mining and mineral processing operations of being under-prepared for adapting to climate risk. For example, the 2010/2011 Queensland floods closed or restricted production of about forty out of Queensland’s fifty coal mines costing more than $2 billion in lost production.Whilst mining and mineral professionals have experience with risk management and managing workplace health and safety, changes to patterns of extreme weather events and future climate impacts are unpredictable. Responding to these challenges requires planning and preparation for events that many people have never experienced before. With increasing investor and public concern for the impact of such events, this guide is aimed at assisting a wide range of mining and mineral industry professionals to incorporate planning and management of extreme weather events and impacts from climate change into pre-development, development and construction, mining and processing operations and post-mining phases. The guide should be read in conjunction with the research  final report which describes the research process for developing the guide and reflects on challenges and lessons for adaptation research from the project.The Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) led the development of the guide with input from the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, University of Queensland and a Steering Committee from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s Sustainability Committee and individual AusIMM members, who volunteered their time and experience. As the situation of every mining and mineral production operation is going to be different, this guide has been designed to provide general information about the nature of extreme weather events, and some specific examples of how unexpectedly severe flooding, storm, drought, high temperature and bushfire events have affected mining and mineral processing operations. A number of case studies used throughout the guide also illustrate the ways forward thinking operations have tackled dramatically changing climatic conditions.Each section of the guide outlines a range of direct and indirect impacts from a different type of extreme weather, and provides a starting point for identifying potential risks and adaptation options that can be applied in different situations. The impacts and adaptation sections provide guidance on putting the key steps into practice by detailing specific case examples of leading practice and how a risk management approach can be linked to adaptive planning. More information about specific aspects of extreme weather, planning and preparation for the risks presented by these events, and tools for undertaking climate related adaptation is provided in the ‘Additional Resources’ section

Leadership Support in Fire Risk Control in Coal Mill Area in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The major significant factor for reducing the risk of fire incidence is leadership support. The objective of this study is to analyze leadership support and their roles in fire control in Coal Mill area in PT.X South Sulawesi. This research used a quantitative design with descriptive approach. Research sample consists of 17 respondents from 14 leaders in the production department and 3 leaders from Occupational and safety department in PT. X South Sulawesi. The results showed that leadership support plays important roles in fire control. Majority of leaders in PT. X stated that they are responsible for controlling fire risk in Coal Mill area and only 52.9% are actively participated in composing and drafting regulation and policy on fire risk control. The other findings indicated that leaders implement the function of auditing and supervising fire control in Coal Mill area. In fact, however, 58.8% said that fire reduction has never become an agenda in their meeting. Another interesting point is that the leaders also play a role in reward and punishment mechanism. Furthermore, 88.2% of the leaders suggested giving reward and 94.1% supported to give punishment to workers in term of a fire accident in Coal Mill area. Leadership support plays important roles to decrease fire risk accident in Coal Mill area. Responsiveness of leaders determines the willingness in responding fire control to support zero accident in a company

A lifetime underground: coal mining and occupational dispossession in eastern Kentucky

This thesis is focused on a workers' perspective of occupational health and safety (OHS) in eastern Kentucky. Since the late 19th century, labor unions and coal mining companies have competed for the labor and resources offered by Appalachia. To get an idea of how miners form ideological stances about OHS advocate-groups and mine companies, this report features ten semi-structured interviews with miners. Using a chronological narrative timeline, participants’ historical and contemporary ideological narratives were gathered. The interviews in this study make it apparent that miners establish experience-based networks of solidarity to make informed decisions about workplace conduct. These peer-groups serve a more important purpose than elite narratives, but in harsh economic conditions, these peer groups value economic activity over just OHS practices

English for Study and Work: Coursebook in 4 books. Book 2 Obtaining and Processing Information for Specific Purposes

Подано всі види діяльності студентів з вивчення англійської мови, спрямовані на розвиток мовної поведінки, необхідної для ефективного спілкування в академічному та професійному середовищах. Містить завдання і вправи, типові для різноманітних академічних та професійних сфер і ситуацій. Структура організації змісту – модульна, охоплює мовні знання і мовленнєві вміння залежно від мовної поведінки. Даний модуль має на меті розвиток у студентів стратегій, умінь, навичок читання, пошуку та вилучення професійно-орієнтованої інформації, необхідної для ефективної професійної діяльності і навчання. Містить завдання і вправи, типові для академічних та професійних сфер, пов’язаних з гірництвом і розробкою родовищ корисних копалин. Зразки текстів – автентичні, різножанрові, взяті з реального життя, містять цікаву й актуальну інформацію про особливості видобутку мінеральних ресурсів в провідних країнах світу, сучасний підхід до розробки родовищ тощо. Ресурси для самостійної роботи (Частина ІІ) містять завдання та вправи для розширення словникового запасу та розвитку знань найуживанішої термінології з гірництва, що спрямовано на організацію самостійної роботи з розвитку мовленнєвих умінь, знань про корисні копалини, методи їх видобутку. За допомогою засобів діагностики студенти можуть самостійно перевірити засвоєння навчального матеріалу й оцінити свої досягнення. Призначений для студентів вищих навчальних закладів, зокрема технічних університетів. Може використовуватися для самостійного вивчення англійської мови викладачами, фахівцями і науковцями різних галузей

Improving the implementation of regulation: time for a systemic approach

The importance of an ‘efficient and effective regulatory environment’ (Offices of the Ministers of Finance and Regulatory Reform, 2013) has never been more prominent in New Zealand than it is at the present time. The New Zealand Productivity Commission’s Regulatory Institutions and Practices report, which is both a product of and contributor to this enhanced prominence, noted that there is growing interest in regulation in New Zealand stemming from the increased importance of individual freedoms and human rights, the growing awareness of the impacts of both good and bad regulation, the way government now organises itself to provide services and implement policy, and the diversity of society and its range of attitudes to risk and expectations about government’s actions. There are many ways to enter into a discussion about an efficient and effective regulatory environment: for example, through the lens of boosting New Zealand’s productivity growth, international competitiveness and living standards (Minister of Finance and Minister of Regulatory Reform, 2009); in relation to the increasing focus on good public sector management, which includes regulatory system stewardship (Treasury, 2013); or by addressing the importance of avoiding, responding to and learning from regulatory disasters (Black, 2014). Discussions may or may not include philosophical perspectives on the place or volume of regulation. But, whatever the view on more or less regulation, or the entry point to the discussion (broad economic performance, regulatory stewardship or avoiding regulatory failures), we probably all agree that regulation that is in place should provide benefits that would not accrue in its absence, at reasonable cost

Hydrogeological challenges in a low carbon economy

Hydrogeology has traditionally been regarded as the province of the water industry, but it is increasingly finding novel applications in the energy sector. Hydrogeology has a longstanding role in geothermal energy exploration and management. Although aquifer management methods can be directly applied to most high-enthalpy geothermal reservoirs, hydrogeochemical inference techniques differ somewhat owing to peculiarities of high-temperature processes. Hydrogeological involvement in the development of ground-coupled heating and cooling systems using heat pumps has led to the emergence of the sub-discipline now known as thermogeology. The patterns of groundwater flow and heat transport are closely analogous and can thus be analysed using very similar techniques. Without resort to heat pumps, groundwater is increasingly being pumped to provide cooling for large buildings; the renewability of such systems relies on accurate prediction and management of thermal breakthrough from reinjection to production boreholes. Hydrogeological analysis can contribute to quantification of accidental carbon emissions arising from disturbance of groundwater-fed peatland ecosystems during wind farm construction. Beyond renewables, key applications of hydrogeology are to be found in the nuclear sector, and in the sunrise industries of unconventional gas and carbon capture and storage, with high temperatures attained during underground coal gasification requiring geothermal technology transfer

WRITING A COMMUNITY GUIDEBOOK FOR EVALUATING LOW-GRADE GEOTHERMAL ENERGY FROM FLOODED UNDERGROUND MINES FOR HEATING AND COOLING BUILDINGS

When underground mines close they often fill with water from ground and surface sources; each mine can contain millions to billions of gallons of water. This water, heated by the Earth’s geothermal energy, reaches temperatures ideal for heat pumps. The sheer scale of these flooded underground mines presents a unique opportunity for large scale geothermal heat pump setups which would not be as economically, socially, and environmentally feasible anywhere else. A literature search revealed approximately 30 instances of flooded underground mines being used to heat and cool buildings worldwide. With thousands of closed/abandoned underground mines in the U.S. and a million estimated globally, why hasn’t this opportunity been more widely adopted? This project has found perception and lack of knowledge about the feasibility to be key barriers. To address these issues, this project drafted a guidebook for former mining communities titled A Community Guide to Mine Water Geothermal Heating and Cooling

PREGLED ODRŽIVOGA RAZVOJA I ODRŽIVOSTI OKOLIŠA U RUDARSKOJ DJELATNOSTI

A comprehensive systemic approach is needed to make effective decisions for global sustainability. The system’s points of view introduced sustainable development (S.D.) and sustainability in prior years. Sustainable development is expressed as a desire followed by humanity to live in a better condition considering all the limits that nature could have. Social, environmental, and economic responsibilities are the wide-ranging developmental characteristics that form sustainability. In this paper, with the help of search engines like Scopus and Web of Science, several documents related to environmental sustainability in the mining industry were studied. The principal investigated problems were tailings dam failure, forestland use in mining operations, social and environmental issues in crushed stone mining industries, landfill mining challenges, climatic problems, economic problems, and fatalities in artisanal and small-scale mines. Also, a table was designed to categorise these problems and determine the solution and primary goal. This study investigates the severity of mining operation conditions and environmental issues in this industry. The common environmental problems in the mining industry include soil degradation, deforestation, land subsidence, acid mine drainage, waste production, natural landscape destruction, coal production, carbon footprint, dust pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and climatic problems. To have a more sustainable mining industry, all the mining stages, from the exploration to the post-closure stages, must minimise resource and energy consumption and waste products.Za donošenje učinkovitih odluka u sklopu globalne održivosti potreban je sveobuhvatan sustavan pristup, što posebno dolazi do izražaja prethodnih godina. Održivi razvoj izražava se kao želja čovječanstva za životom u boljim uvjetima uzimajući u obzir moguća ograničenja prirode. Društvene, ekološke i ekonomske odgovornosti ubrajaju se među brojne karakteristike razvoja koje čine održivost. U ovome radu, uz pomoć tražilica poput Scopusa i Web of Science, proučavano je nekoliko dokumenata vezanih uz održivost okoliša u rudarskoj industriji. Glavni fokusi studija vezani su uz probleme kao što su klizanje jalovišta, korištenje šumskoga zemljišta u rudarskim radovima, socijalna i ekološka pitanja u eksploataciji i proizvodnji tehničko-građevnoga kamena, izazovi eksploatacije na odlagalištima, klimatski problemi, ekonomski problemi i smrtni slučajevi u privatnim i malim rudnicima. Također, osmišljena je tablica koja kategorizira te probleme i njihova rješenja te primarni cilj. Ova studija istražuje važnost radnih uvjeta u rudarstvu i probleme okoliša u rudarskoj industriji. Uobičajeni ekološki problemi u toj industriji uključuju degradaciju tla, krčenje šuma, slijeganje zemljišta, odvodnju kiselih otpadnih voda iz rudnika, proizvodnju otpada, degradaciju prirodnoga krajolika, proizvodnju ugljena, ugljični otisak, onečišćenje prašinom, emisije stakleničkih plinova i klimatske probleme. Kako bismo imali održiviju rudarsku industriju, sve faze rudarstva, od istraživanja do faza nakon zatvaranja, moraju minimizirati potrošnju resursa i energije te otpadne proizvode