Inco Ltd. has reinstated seven miners who were fired from the company’s Frood Mine in Sudbury last October for dangerous mining practices, the company said recently.
Inco says the miners, found taking short cuts while installing rock bolts at the operations’s 304-m and 335-m levels, were back at their work stations Jan 11.
The company actually fired eight miners for the dangerous practice known as short bolting, but one of the miners has since died.
Inco spokesperson Karen Debenedet said the seven miners have been reinstated on a Step 4 disciplinary level.
Under an Inco disciplinary system, the company has a non-punitive system consisting of four steps. Level 4 is one step away from dismissal.
According to Debenedet, if any of the miners are disciplined between now and Jan 11, 1990, they will be discharged immediately.
“If nothing happens within the next two years, their record will be clean and they can start over,” she said.
Classified as trackless development miners, they received no money or benefits from Inco between the time they were discharged in October and reinstated this week.
According to David Campbell, President for Local 6,500 of the United Steel Workers Union, Inco acted too severely when it dismissed the miners in October.
Based on their past service, he likened the firings to a life sentence. The seven miners each had a minimum 17 years and maximum 21 years of service behind them.
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