The liability for accidents th
The liability for accidents that occur during the mining ofminerals and metals might be placed on either miners (that is,employees of mining companies) or on the owners of miningcompanies. Mine owners will spend more money on preventing miningaccidents if they are made liable for such accidents than theywould if the miners were made liable for such accidents. (Hint:Think about the assignment of liability for accidents to one partyas being equivalent to the assignment of a property right over thelevel of safety involved in the operation of a mine to the otherparty.) (5 marks.)
Answer:
The liability for accidents that occur during mining of mineralsand metals might be placed on either miners who work inside insidethe minning fields i.e. the employees of the mining companies or itcan be placed on the owners of the minning companies. Placing ofthe liability actually works as an incentive for each party to takesome positive steps to reduce the number of accidents.
If the liability is placed on the miners, it may be imposed onthem asking them to be more attentive while entering the minningfields and take necessary protection while working inside theminning fields. They may be accused for not using necessarypreventive meassures inside the minning area.It must increase theirsocial cost of working in the minning fields because of theaccusation. As a result they might take more strict premitivemeassures and use more modern equipments and also be attentivewhile working inside the minning fields.
On the other hand the liability can be placed on the owners ofthe minning fields. Infact the probability of placing the liabilityon the owners of the minning companies is way higher than theprevious one. The accusation may on different aspects e.g. notproviding proper modern equipments to the minners, not takingnecessary premitive steps to avoid occurence of accidents, notproviding proper training to the new minners to work safely insidethe minning field etc. Working inside minning firlds is a veryrisky job. Minners who work inside the minning fields are veryprone to accidents. It is important for the minning companies toprovide modern and safe equipments to their workers. They shouldintroduce regorous training program to make the minners learn aboutthe safety tools inside the minning area. Minning companies shouldalso provide suitable life insurance for the workers and thairfamily. If the minning companies are made liable for occurrence ofthe accidents. It might affect the business of the companies assome legal steps might be taken against them. Hence this mayincrease their social cost of business and reduce their profit andscope of business to a large extend. Hence in order to avoidconflicts the companies must look to spend more money in providingproper modern equipments, necessary premitive tools and providerigorous training to their employees to reduce the number ofaccurrence of accidents.