Workers die at Mittal's plant: report

London: Controversy surrounds a Romanian steel plant bought by NRI tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, with a report on Sunday saying that scores of workers have died or were injured in accidents on the site.

Some 25 people have been killed and another 254 injured at the Galati plant in eastern Romania since it was bought in late 2001 by Mittal, the world's largest steel magnate, said a report in The Sunday Telegraph.

Mittal's purchase of the business caused controversy after disclosures that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had sent a letter to the Romanian government endorsing the bid after it had succeeded, just weeks after Mittal donated £ 125,000 to the Labour Party, the report said.

Last month one worker died and three others were injured after being set ablaze at the Romanian plant's oxygen unit. The three survivors are still in critical condition, with more than 70 per cent burns.

There have been six fatalities at the plant so far this year, state safety inspectors said.

The company disputed the inspectors' death and injury figures, but admitted that over the same five-year period 17 employees have died from accidents and another 203 have suffered injuries that prevented them from working.

It had sacked five managers in response to the most recent incident, which it blamed on "safety procedures not being applied".

A company spokeswoman said: "We take safety extremely seriously and leadership must be accountable for ensuring that employees follow the safety procedures set out at all times."

The Romanian steelworks said it has improved safety since Mittal took over the ailing enterprise from state ownership.

"We have put great emphasis on reducing the injury rates with considerable success. Prior to Mittal Steel's ownership the average number of lost workday injuries per year were 147. In 2005, this had been reduced to 32, an improvement of 79 per cent," said the company's spokeswoman.

The average number of deaths at the plant has also fallen since Mittal took control, she said.

Trade union officials said some of those injured have been permanently disabled and Gheorghe Tiber, a lawyer with the Steel Workers Solidarity Union who worked at the plant for 23 years, is threatening to take the company to court over the latest accident which he blamed on poor management and lack of effort to improve safety conditions.

The Romanian plant has been fined 30,000 pounds so far this year by state inspectors for disregarding safety rules.

"The fines have been imposed for not regularly checking equipment, for improper technology, for not checking employees' health and for inadequately marking dangerous areas," Sunday Telegraph quoted deputy head of Romania's state safety inspectorate Nicolae Dantes Bratu as saying.

The company dismissed suggestions that the accidents were a consequence of the smaller workforce, which has been reduced from 27,700 to 16,600 since Mittal took over, in a bid to bring the plant in line with European staffing norms.

The company spokeswoman said, "each Mittal Steel business unit has a compensation policy to support any financial losses as a result of injuries sustained in the workplace. In the case of any fatality, support is provided to the family."