Secrecy shrouds looming job cuts at Galane Gold

Patricia Edwin | Wednesday April 30, 2014 11:30

 

Mine Manager Nicholas Brodie said he was out of the country when Mmegi first called.  Human Resources Manager Vincent Mothupi’s response yesterday, after days of not answering his phone, was that they would not be able to respond.

“Our apologies for taking long to respond to you on this issue. 

“However, please note that we will not make any comments at this stage since the issue has not been decided upon yet,” he said.

Galane Gold last year retrenched 83 of their employees, who were mostly in the mining and geology departments.

Last week there was word of the dreaded retrenchment axe hovering over the heads of employees from departments of Administration, Human Resources and also those from production that dodged it last year.

Though the mine is withholding information on the issue, the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) confirmed that the exercise was looming.

BMWU Secretary General, Bob Malele said he was appalled at the secrecy shrouding the exercise, questioning how the mine wants to retrench employees again without proper consultation with them.

Malele voiced his frustrations at how the mining company was conducting business when it comes to handling employees. He said: “At first I did not know as we received some information from the branch.

“It was only after contacting the Human Resource management that they told me that it was indeed true that they were going to retrench.”

He said that he was told that out of the three pits that have been operating, two have been shutdown and only one is operating.

The operational one will now be mined by a company that Galane Gold has sub-contracted called Mining Tech. Malele said that upon inquiry, the mine told him that many more employees would be affected including those from departments of HR, administration and production. 

Malele said that the union was concerned because people at Galane never know what the future holds for them.

According to information leaked to Mmegi from within the mine, the retrenchment process will begin on May 6. Malele confirmed tha that was what he was also told.