Maputo — Mozambique's National Union of Building, Timber and Mine Workers (SINTICIM) has accused the General Inspectorate of Labour (IGT) of bungling its investigation into the deaths of two workers on a Maputo building site in October.

The two men, Anselmo Zucula and Fernando Mucavel, fell to their deaths from the ninth floor of an unfinished hotel on 26 October. The IGT investigated the incident and, according to a Labour Ministry statement of 11 November, reached the conclusion that the contractor, SB-Construcoes, was to blame.

The IGT accused the company of ignoring basic safety rules. It said there should have been a supervisor on duty, but he was not on site at the time of the accident. Furthermore, no protective equipment was in use to prevent accidents.

The IGT ordered SB-Construcoes to correct the irregularities in its security system, and imposed a fine of five times the minimum wage - 10,575 meticais, which is equivalent to just 386 US dollars at current exchange rates.

Initially the union reaction was to protest at the derisory fine, as bearing no relation to the loss of two lives.

But SINTICIM now says it has carried out its own investigation into the accident, finding that the initial IGT report bore no relation to what really happened.

The Maputo city secretary of SINTICIM, Anastacio Matsinhe, said that in fact the workers at SB-Construcoes are duly equipped with safety gear, and the company does observe a strict safety regime. On being recruited, the company's workers are given a course on health and safety at work, and lectures on the subject are regularly held.

There was a supervisor on duty on the day of the accident, said Matsinhe, but when the men fell, he had left the ninth floor for a different compartment. Matsinhe did not think it reasonable to expect the supervisor to stay in the same place all the time.

The two men had been mounting glass plates in the walls at the time of the accident, and Matsinhe said it was still unclear how they had come to fall together. He thought it possible that one of them had slipped, grabbed onto his companion for support, and the two had then toppled over.

"We regret the loss of human lives, but it didn't happen the way the IGT says it did", he added.

Matsinhe said the union had also found that SB-Construcoes had taken out life insurance for all its 750 workers, valid until March 2010

Of course, the change in SINTICIM's position inevitably leads to suspicion that a deal has been done between the company and the union. AIM asked Matsinhe why the company itself has not called a press conference to give its position. Why did it seem to be speaking through the union?

Matsinhe denied that the company had told him what to say. "We have trade union representation in that company, and so we have the right to give our opinion about what happened", he said.