OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2009. A delegation from Britain’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) recently spent two days at Pavlogradugol (DTEK) at the invitation of the Dnepropetrovsk Territorial Organization of Mineworkers’ Trade Union (DTO MTU).

The purpose of the visit was to exchange views on creating safe working conditions for miners’ work, their rehabilitation, training, etc... The NUM representatives were particularly interested in the performance of Pavlogradugol, the largest coal mining company in Ukraine, as a result of the recent revival of the coal industry in Great Britain, where the previously closed mines have been re-opened and the commissioning of new coal mining companies is planned.

The British guests visited Zapadno-Donbasskaya mine (one of Pavlogradugol’s mines), where they met the representatives of the company’s administration and trade union and saw first hand the miners’ working conditions underground. The delegation also visited the social facilities of Pavlogradugol – the ‘Samara’ sanatorium, a medical base for the prevention and treatment of professional miners’ diseases, as well as the ‘Sergey Markov’ and ‘Prolisok’ children’s rehabilitation camps. At the end of the visit, the representatives of the NUM, Pavlogradugol and central committee of Dnepropetrovsk Territorial Organization of Mineworkers’ Trade Union held a round table discussion on the state of the Ukrainian coal mining industry and labour safety. The top managers of Pavlogradugol told their guests about the advantages of the company’s performance as a part of the vertically integrated company DTEK and described the activities aimed at raising the level of labour safety and social protection of the company’s employees.

Chris Kitchen, the Head of the National Union of Mineworkers, said:

”We were very pleased by the hearty welcome we received at Pavlogradugol. The openness of the company’s management to share experiences is worth a special mention. It was very interesting for us to understand that in Ukraine coal remains one of the strategic energy resources. After all, in our country it was considered for long time that coal use remained in the past. It is not a secret that the coal mining industry in Great Britain was in decline for a long time, but today the attitude is changing. That is why we try to maintain relationship with our Ukrainian colleagues and miners from the other countries. Because no matter where we live, we face similar challenges, which can be resolved only taking into consideration positive experience of each other’.