Examining subsector-based inequalities in health, safety and environmental conditions of gold miners in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana’s small scale mining subsector employs more, usually indigenous people, than the industrial large scale subsector. Despite the potential contributions of small scale mining, there exist wide disparaging variations in health, safety and environmental (HSE) conditions compared to their industrial large scale counterparts. The disparity in the HSE conditions of industrial large scale and small scale gold miners was assessed to (a) determine how these differences in the subsector systematically vary with socio-demographic and contextual characteristics of miners in Ghana and (b) establish if these differences are as a result of discrimination in the sector or due to differences in productivity characteristics of the miners. Four counterfactual decomposition methods were fitted to a cross-sectional survey data of 512 gold miners (207 industrial large scale, 305 small scale) to disaggregate the dissimilarities in mean scores of HSE conditions of industrial large scale and small scale gold miners in Ghana. Gold miners’ educational level, ability to self-protect at work, experiencing work-related health problems and HSE conditions largely depended on the associated subsector of the gold miner. Discrimination accounted for the larger proportion of the dissimilarities in HSE conditions of the gold miners although work department (productivity characteristic) contributed marginally to the inequality. These differences could also arise from subsector heterogeneities. To fill these gaps, relevant small scale specific HSE regulations should be developed and enforced in addition to a comprehensive and inclusive formalization of the subsector.