Trapped Chilean miners won’t get wages

LONDON - The 33 Chilean miners who are trapped inside a gold and copper mine since Aug 5 may not receive wages while they are underground, a media report said Wednesday.

The San Esteban company that operates the mine has said it has no money to pay their wages and absorb lawsuits, and is not even participating in the rescue, Daily Mail reported.

Workers’ union leader Evelyn Olmos called on the government to pay the workers’ wages starting in September, and giving help to roughly 100 other people at the mine who are now out of work and 170 more who work elsewhere for the company.

Meanwhile, workers began drilling at the mine where 33 workers are trapped underground. The machine made a preliminary test hole Wednesday, the first step in the week-long digging of a ‘pilot hole’ that will guide the rescue.

The rescue could take up to four months.

“We want the government to pay our salaries in full until our comrades are freed and then pay our severances,” said Olmos.

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said the government was prohibited by labour laws from assuming responsibility for the salaries. He said it was up to the mining company and would have to be worked out in Chilean courts.

Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the trapped miners’ condition had been stabilised - and their diet is being stepped up to prepare them for their first hot meal.

They have so far this week been receiving six meals a day, including ham sandwiches, cereal bars, fruit and a nutritional gel, as well as four litres of water.

Medical experts reportedly said, if all went to plan, they would be receiving a meal of rice, chopped beef and yoghurt.

Rescue workers are currently using three existing bore holes to deliver the food, water, air and medicine to the miners, who are trapped around 700 meters underground.

The stepping up of the rescue effort comes as the miners gained the dubious honour of becoming the longest-trapped miners in recent history, surpassing the record of three Chinese miners who were trapped last year.

Before rescuers dug small bore holes down to the miners’ emergency shelter, the men survived 17 days without contact with the outside world by rationing a 48-hour supply of food and digging for water in the ground.

“The drill operators have the best equipment available internationally,” said Dave Feickert, director of KiaOra, a mine safety consulting firm in New Zealand that has worked extensively with the Chinese government to improve dangerous mines.