**5. Global laws, legislation, and standards on health and safety compliance within the mining industry**

Occupational health and safety standards plays important role in guiding all the miners on health and safety-related issues focusing more on prevention. However though there are available standards, the occurrence of injuries and occupational diseases remains to be a challenge worldwide. The literature revealed that globally in every 15 seconds a miner dies [28, 29]. World Health Organization (WHO)outlined occupational health and safety as 'the advancement and maintenance of the most significant level of physical, mental and social health of miners in all occupations by preventing health risks and controlling danger and the adaption of work to miners and their positions [30]. Furthermore, it is of utmost importance to note that a safe and healthy working environment influences the quality of life at the individual level to substantial impacts on public health at the societal level [30].

Globally, the health and safety of the miners have raised serious concerns. In the United States (US) the former chief executive director of the upper big branch coal mine was sentenced to a year in prison for the death of 38 miners who were killed after a coal explosion [31]. He was convicted for a workplace safety violation by putting profits of the company ahead of the safety of miners and creating a culture of non-compliance within the organization [31]. Dragan, Georges, and Mustafa's study in Canada indicated that cultural factors within the organization especially from the management focusing on performance and efficiency and neglecting safety plays a key role in creating conditions for triggering major accidents [32]. More particularly from the administration with more emphasis on the execution and productivity and dismissing the safety and wellbeing of miners.

Different countries have laws and regulations in place at the workplace aiming to protect the health and safety of individuals in their occupations. Occupational health and safety laws across nations share many similarities highlighting that the health and safety of employees must be secured through the assessment, analysis, adjustment and reducing the risks and hazards for illness and injury at the workplace [33, 34]. Occupational health and safety compliance shapes the required or desirable behavior in the workplace. Furthermore, compliance is linked to the safety culture or climate in the organization, which is believed to shape employee behavior through expectations [35].

Statute law may uphold extra obligations, start explicit obligations, and structure government bodies with the power to direct work environment wellbeing and medical problems. As set by Spada and Burgherr; Mabika, reinforcing the wellbeing controller is required, upheld by the authoritative approaches [36, 37]. Such drives can save the existence of mine accidents and occupational diseases in both developed and undeveloped countries [37]. United Kingdom (UK) is one of the created

*Strategies to Enhance Compliance to Health and Safety Protocols within the South African… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100264*

nations with a fruitful record of wellbeing and safety practices in the mine. As indicated by Uyanusta Kucuk and Ilgaz, wellbeing and safety laws in the UK have been in existence for more than 200 years [38]. Moreover, the laws came because of political reactions to social issues emerging from the unsettling influences of the industrial revolution [38]. Among other enactments, the mines and safety act 1954 was the broadest safety enactment in the UK. The demonstration set down legal obligations on mine chiefs and offered.
