Safety Rules for Mines and Industrial Operations

Section 3 imposes a duty on every person, partnership, association, company, firm, or corporation engaged in mining, quarrying, metallurgical operation, or any other industrial enterprise to give full cooperation to safety personnel.
Section 3 requires covered entities to provide every facility to the Safety Engineers and to other agents the Secretary of Labor designates for inspection of works, processes, and any other unit of the enterprise.
Section 4 requires every covered employer to provide safety equipment for the protection of all its laborers and employees against accidents or diseases.
Section 4 limits required safety provision to reasonable and approved safety devices, tools, and appliances in accordance with rules, regulations, and orders issued under Section 1.

Section 2 requires the Secretary of Labor to appoint one Senior Safety Engineer and one Junior Safety Engineer to assist in safety standard-setting and related duties.
The Senior Safety Engineer must be a duly licensed mining, mechanical or naval engineer with not less than four years’ experience in actual practice in the Philippines.
The Junior Safety Engineer must be a duly licensed mining or mechanical engineer with experience of not less than two years.
Section 2 directs the engineers to aid the Secretary of Labor in establishing safety standards and to perform other duties prescribed by the Secretary from time to time.

Section 3 mandates that covered employers provide every facility for inspection of the enterprise’s works, processes, and any other unit.
Section 3 compels cooperation not only with the Safety Engineers, but also with other agents the Secretary of Labor may designate.
Section 3 makes employer facilitation part of the employer’s obligations for proper enforcement of the Act.

Section 5 creates an Advisory Safety Council with the Undersecretary of Labor (or duly authorized representative) as chairman.
Section 5 provides the Council’s composition includes:
- one mining engineer designated by mining operators,
- one representative of other industrial undertakings designated by industrial concerns,
- one representative of industrial accident insurance companies,
- one representative of the public.
The last two representatives (industrial accident insurance companies and public) must be designated by the Secretary of Labor.
Section 5 fixes Council tenure at two years and states the Council shall serve without compensation.
Section 5 makes the Council an advisory body that must advise the Secretary of Labor on formulation of safety orders, rules, regulations, safety devices, and safety standards to safeguard health and lives of workers in mining and other industrial operations.

Section 4 requires employers to provide reasonable and approved safety devices, tools and appliances.
Section 4 makes the safety provision a duty for the protection of all laborers and employees against accidents or diseases.
Section 4 ties compliance to the rules, regulations, and orders issued pursuant to the Act.

Section 6 imposes criminal liability when there is a violation of the Act or of any orders, rules, and regulations issued under it.
Section 6 makes the liability fall on the manager, superintendent, or other officer directly concerned.
Section 6 provides the penalty is a fine of not less than fifty pesos nor more than five hundred pesos.
Section 6 provides alternative or additional imprisonment of not less than ten days nor more than six months.
Section 6 allows the court to impose either fine, imprisonment, or both, in its discretion.

Section 7 appropriates PHP 8,000 from funds in the Philippine Treasury not otherwise appropriated for salaries, wages, and other enforcement expenses.
Section 7 sets the Senior Safety Engineer salary at PHP 3,600 per annum.
Section 7 sets the Junior Safety Engineer salary at PHP 3,000 per annum.
Section 7 requires that subsequent appropriations for enforcement be included in the General Appropriation Act.