Shaanxi Provincial Emergency Management Department Holds Promotion Meeting on Underground Workforce Reduction for Large-Shift Coal Mines
On March 10, the Shaanxi Provincial Emergency Management Department convened a promotion meeting on underground workforce reduction for large-shift coal mines in Binzhou, Xianyang City. The meeting conveyed and studied the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions and directives, relevant written instructions from leading officials of the CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee and the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Government, as well as the spirits of the recent national video conference on safety risk prevention and the provincial video conference on work safety. It also put forward work requirements for cutting underground staff at large-shift coal mines across the province. Li Jianwen, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Shaanxi Provincial Emergency Management Department, attended and addressed the meeting.
The meeting stressed that all parties must fully recognize the safety risks existing in large-shift coal mines and the extreme significance of implementing underground personnel limits at coal mines. Enterprises shall earnestly fulfill their main safety responsibilities. Principal persons-in-charge of coal mines shall personally arrange, deploy, supervise and implement targeted workforce reduction measures to deliver solid results in cutting underground staff for large-shift operations. Coal mine safety supervision authorities and superior coal groups shall conduct safety assessments on large-shift mines, increase inspection frequency and law enforcement intensity against such mines, and adopt effective measures to prevent safety accidents.
The meeting required all relevant parties to further refine and implement all workforce reduction measures and strengthen control over key underground zones. Coal enterprises shall optimize underground labor organization and set scientific and reasonable underground staffing quotas. Continuous efforts shall be made to advance the "One Optimization & Three Reductions" initiative (optimize production systems, reduce mining levels, cut working faces and trim underground personnel) by refining supporting measures, optimizing the layout of production systems and cutting the number of mining and tunneling faces to slash underground workers from the source. Accelerated progress shall be made in promoting the construction of the "Four Modernizations" of coal mines, namely mechanization, automation, informatization and intelligentization. More workers shall be replaced by machinery, fewer staff deployed via automation, manpower cut through information technology and unattended operation realized with intelligent systems, so as to reduce personnel in high-risk posts. Shift handover procedures shall be optimized: handovers shall be arranged in main haulage roadways instead of mining/tunneling faces where possible, and on the ground rather than underground whenever conditions permit.
At the meeting, coal mine safety supervision departments of Xianyang and Baoji Cities, Binchang Mining Company and 12 participating coal mine enterprises exchanged views on mine work safety and the implementation of workforce reduction measures.
