Moolmans mine retrenches 345 workers

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Friday April 1, 2011 00:00

 

Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) President, Rex Tambula told Mmegi in an interview this week that they could not do anything to stop the retrenchment because of the Labour Act. He explained that the act enables the employer to go ahead with the exercise if the Commissioner of Labour has been consulted.

He said that if the employer feels that they cannot continue with the employees then they can proceed with the process. He however said that Moolmans has adopted the same package that was used at Mowana mine, which is peanuts. Out of the total number of employees affected, 193 are members of the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU).

The Moolmans Mine retrenchment package states that workers will get their salary up to March 31, 2011, an additional pay (up to April 30, 2011) to allow for the exit medical examinations and the general clearance process and one week's pay for every year's service on pro-rata basis.

The package also says the workers, who are being retrenched will be given pro-rata year end bonus, one day's basic pay in respect of each month of continuous employment and accrued annual leave.

The workers will also get one month (April 2011) company contribution (50 percent) towards the funeral scheme, one month (April 2011) company contribution (50 percent) towards medical aid and those who relocated from Mowana site to Phoenix site will receive relocation allowance of P850.

Tambula complained that only five workers would benefit from the repatriation package.  He explained that although workers state where they originate from when they are hired, the mine is not willing to meet them half way in paying the costs of transporting their properties to their homes.

'In 2009 we reported Moolmans to the Department of Labour but we were not successful due to the Labour Act.

The act has been bypassed by events and it is high time it was renewed and dealt with retrenchment. It must be corrected to cater for retrenched employees,' he said.

Tambula said that Moolmans was also not cooperative  when its management decided that the workers packages would be handled by First National Bank Botswana (FNBB). He pointed out that the mine had also agreed with FNBB to give workers loans but recent events will mean that the bank will take all the money that it is owed by employees from their packages.

He noted that the bank could not agree to negotiate payments with the workers because it has been informed that they have been retrenched. He added that the package that some workers received is less than the debt they owe the bank. Tambula explained that the agreement signed was to the effect that employees who paid more would be covered by insurance and those who paid less would not enjoy the cover upon retrenchment.

He pointed out that Moolmans workers are not happy about how management has treated them.  He said the Moolmans retrenchment was influenced by Tati Nickel Company that was planning to retrench 150 but later decided to retrench 141 workers.

He explained that Tati has subcontracted Moolmans and whatever decision Tati makes affects Moolmans workforce. Tambula said that Tati had instructed Moolmans to produce 28 million tons of copper and then decided on 14 million tons. He said that it was that decision that influenced Moolmans to retrench its employees by half.

Moolmans initially had 764 employees. 'Tati also instructed Moolmans to buy more equipment to be able to increase production to 34 million tons last year. The equipment has cost the company millions. Those are some of the reasons that forced the company to retrench workers,' he said.

Tambula appealed to Batswana to join workers' unions as this would help them during hard times. He said that the retrechment of more mine workers would cripple BMWU. 

He said BMWU was successful in Mopane Mine when they were able to make the company reverse its decision of outsourcing its drilling department. He said the union was also able to convince Tati to give the security tender to its employees when the company decided to outsource security.

'Tati wanted to introduce modern security devices hence retrench security officers. We were against that decision because we believe that Batswana must benefit from their mines,' said Tambula.

BMWU president revealed that they have also written a letter to the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources and Minister of Labour and Home Affairs to intervene in the matter. He said that Batswana no longer have job security because of the way companies are handling retrenchment.