Trigon Metals, the Canadian company that recently announced a deal to sell Kombat Mine near Otavi to Horizon Corporation of London, will be retrenching workers at the mine effective Friday.
According to sources at the mine, departmental representatives held a meeting with Trigon’s vice president for operations at Kombat, Stephanie Muller, over the retrenchment, which is blamed on flooding at the mine due to dewatering pump failures.
Asked for comment on Tuesday, Muller confirmed that the mine was flooded but refused to comment further, saying the company would issue a statement about the retrenchment from Canada.
“I cannot comment on that. The company will issue a statement from our headquarters in Canada either today or tomorrow,” she said.
Efforts to get comment from Trigon chief executive Jed Richardson in Canada and from Trigon local partner Knowledge Katti were fruitless.
However, Mineworkers Union of Namibia regional organiser for the northern region, Reginald Kock, says the union was set to meet Muller over the planned retrenchments.
He says as far as the union was concerned, the retrenchments would be illegal because the workers, the union and even the ministry had not been given the required 30 days notice for the dismissals.
He adds that the union was not involved in negotiating the packages of the workers, including the relocation of those who come from other places besides Kombat.
According to sources, the retrenchment will be for a nine-month period effective 30 January.
The source further says the faulty pumps will be sent to Walvis Bay for repairs, and it’s going to take time to get them fixed.
According to the source, only 28 people will remain on site to do maintenance, and their selection is based on the work required.
Kock asked how the 28 people would be chosen, especially when there are more than one doing the same job.
The company allegedly committed to forward the names of employees to other mines and that upon the restarting of the mine, previous employees will be given the first consideration to return.
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na
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