The Catholic Church in South Africa has filed a class action lawsuit against leading mining companies on behalf of coal miners with lung disease, said the Southern African Bishops Conference last week.
“Ex-mine workers are often no longer members of trade unions, so lack the means to seek legal recourse from companies responsible for their lung diseases,” Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin said.
Al Jazeera reports that the miners are represented by Richard Spoor, who has won compensation in similar cases before.
Filed on behalf of 17 former and current mine workers, the case targets mining giant BHP, its spin-off South32 and South Africa’s Seriti.
It seeks recourse for all miners who had worked for these companies since 1965 and contracted lung disease, as well as dependents of workers who had died from coal dust-induced illness.
The church said the workers had approached it for assistance.
The class action accuses the companies of failing to provide their workers with adequate training, equipment and a safe working environment despite knowing the risks to coal miners.
The local coal industry employs almost 100 000 people – mainly in the eastern region of Mpumalanga, which Greenpeace said has some of the dirtiest air in the world.
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