Inflation, Race, and Legislation-The Erosion in the Real Value of Monetary Compensation for Miners' Occupational Lung Disease in South Africa, 1973-2024.

Abstract

Background: For much of the 20th century, the South African mining industry had a statutory compensation system for pneumoconiosis and tuberculosis characterized by gross racial inequality. This study examines the impact of inflation over the period 1973-2024 on the real value of miners' lung disease compensation, including the effect of the dropping of formal racial discrimination after 1993.

Methods: Sources of information included legislation, government reports, notices, and Gazettes, and mining industry reports.

Results: From 1973 to 1993, high rates of inflation hollowed out the value of compensation for all miners, greater in absolute terms for white miners. From 1994, inflation continued to erode both the real value of compensation payments, and, with the rise in earnings for all miners, the percentage of annual earnings covered by these payments. Until 2017 there were a few sporadic increases in statutory payment amounts, but a cap on "allowable earnings" used to calculate compensation severely limited any gain. Underlying factors include historic underfunding of the Compensation Fund via the statutory employer levy, administrative disarray in the state compensation agency, and unanticipated political, economic and epidemic disruptions. Recent years have seen a restoration of financial and administrative stability, with some degree of reversal of long-term trends.

Conclusions: Although formal Apartheid racial discrimination ended in 1994, inflation, and until recently legislative stasis, continued to disadvantage all miners with compensatable occupational lung disease. The system is currently undergoing legislative reform-including proper funding of operations but also with limitation on civil liability against employers. The question therefore remains open as to whether a fair and equitable system of compensation for miners will be achieved and sustained.