Skorpion stung by lay-off controversy

FOLLOWING the heavy criticism of its failure to inform stakeholders in advance of plans to lay off 278 workers, Skorpion Zinc in the //Karas region has finally informed the stakeholders of its plans.

The stakeholders include the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) and the labour commissioner.

The mine is owned by the London-listed Vedanta Zinc International.

Nora Ndopu, the corporate affairs manager, said the company has now officially notified the ‘relevant stakeholders of its intention to restructure the mine and refinery.’

Skorpion’s plans have been opposed and criticised by the union.

Under the plan, mining operations will be outsourced to a mining contractor with the heavy equipment necessary to expand the life of the mine.

“The Pit 112 project will involve mining of waste rock to broaden and deepen the current Pit 103, which runs out of mineable ore in June this year. Pit 112 will access new mineable ore, extending the life of the mine for three years until 2020,” Ndopu said.

Skorpion contends that should Pit 112 not to go ahead, the mine and refinery would have to close for a minimum of two years until another project to convert the refinery is finalised.

“A consequence of this would be retrenchment of Skorpion Zinc’s full complement of approximately 1 500 employees by June 2017,” Ndopu said.

The company says it does not have the heavy mining equipment needed to mine the large quantities of waste and within the time frame.

The company is hoping that the contractor will absorb the effected 278 employees employees.

“It is expected of the contractor to create employment opportunities for approximately 450 Namibians for Pit 112,” said Ndopu.

On his Twitter account, mines minister, Obeth Kandjoze said that three meetings were held towards the end of 2016 to discuss the “retrenchments.”

The intended layoffs are expected to happen towards the end of February.

The mining will be outsourced to Basil Read Mining Namibia, which is set to absorb the affected workers on a contract basis.MUN Skorpion branch chairperson, Petersen Kambinda said last week that to make matters worse, the union only learned of this development two weeks ago.

“Skorpion kept us in the dark about the outsourcing of mining operations and the loss of jobs. They informed us in a letter on 16 January after previously denying that they were concluding a contract with Basil Read,” Kambinda said.

He said the matter came to the attention of the union after the private company advertised vacancies at Skorpion in newspapers inDecember.

“We demand to be included in discussions on the future of the workers. We cannot allow permanent workers to lose their jobs only to be employed as cheap labourers,” Kambinda said.

He said the underlying intention of the outsourcing was to maximise profits for Skorpion and Basil Read through the exploitation of the workers.

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