KONKOLA Copper Mines (KCM) has denied ever laying off any miner after the directive by President Michael Sata for the mining giant not to declare any of the 1, 529 employees redundant.
KCM said the reported 76 workers were fixed-term contract employees who were relieved of their duty from KCM in order for them to be engaged by a new contractor.
In a statement yesterday KCM management said had not dismissed any of miner contrary to media reports last week that the company ignored President Sata’s directive not to declare any of the 1, 529 employees redundant as part of its restructuring exercise.
The company said the reported 76 were temporal workers who were part of the 284 employees belonging to a contractor MMS, the KCM had taken over in 2012 temporarily to safeguard jobs.
KCM said at the expiry of the contract with MMS, which was engaged to work at Number three shaft at Konkola Mine in Chililabombwe, the mining giant took the 284 workers temporarily to safeguard the jobs, with the aim to later hand them over to another contractor once identified.
“In August 2013, KCM engaged a new contractor called JCHX, which informed KCM that it only required 76 employees and upon that advice, KCM released the 76 fixed-term contract employees so that they could be interviewed and hired by the new contractor after passing interviews,” reads the statement.
KCM management said as a result of this selection of the 76 employees, their contract of employment with KCM came to an end on October 19, 2013, after they had been served with employment termination letters giving them one month notice on September 19, 2013.
They said this allowed them to join the new contractor and thatrelevant government labour authorities were informed about the situation.
“KCM has retained the 208 ex-MMs fixed-term contract employees and has continued to pay them salaries as additional contractors are being sought,” they said.
To this end, management said, the fact was that KCM did not retrench any staff following the presidential directive as the 76 former contractor employees left the company on October 19, 2013, to join the contractor company as per initial terms of their contract.
“KCM would like to state that it did not lay layoff the 76 employees after the directive by His Excellency, President Michael Sata, as reported in the media,” management said.
KCM management also refuted reports that company chief executive officer (CEO) Kishore Kumar fled the country.
The company said Mr Kumar who is CEO for Base Metals Africa, a unit of the London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc, left the country last Friday on South African Airways scheduled business trip to South Africa.
“We advise our continued commitment to adherence to the provision of the law of the land. In addition, KCM is committed to supporting the Government in its effort to develop the country and will continue to engage Government on this matter,” they said.
FYI!
Government has revoked the working permit for Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) Chief Executive Officer Kishore Kumar and declares him a prohibited Immigrant.
This means that Mr. Kumar will not, at any given time, be allowed to enter the boarders of Zambia.
This follows Mr. Kumar’s evading of a meeting that the Ministry of Home Affairs had asked him to attend to ascertain a statement he made in the media to describe as mere rhetoric President Michael Sata’s warning against firing any workers at the mine.
In statement released to Qfm today, Chief government spokesperson Mwansa Kapeya says following this decision by government, all law enforcement officers, at all border entry points, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, have since been notified.
Mr. Kapeya says government is…
Maybe the Government should consider spending less time with Mmembe?
So did the govt react to what was heard from media rather than engage kcm? Eish…
1.2, see 1 paragraph 3.
The prohibition is neither here nor there because it is unlikely that Kumar will be clamouring to return to Zambia anyway. Moreover, these deportations tend to have a short life. When a new government comes into power they will just revoke the order and everything will be back to normal for him.
I see, KCM is now feeling the venom of the King Cobra!
This statement by KCM is not making sense. KCM is not the type of investor that is concerned with preserving jobs.
This is MERE RHETORIC.
It is very simple to verify the KCM statement. Just ask the 76 people to show their letters of retrenchment.
Our own Zambian brothers at the help of KCM are the ones in the fore front of ill treating,frustrating and intimidation us.Indians are just being influenced.
Serta perfect sleeper is a registered trademark, a mattress brand.Sata the perfect sleeper is our registered visionless president sleeping on the job in plot one.
ba kcm do not feel intimidated. you are in business to make a profit, if extra workers have to be retrenched to keep the company running, just go ahead and lay off excess baggage. better to loose 1500 jobs than 10,000. sata has never run a business that is why he only owns seven guns. besides miners are very dull to have voted for pf. infact nchanga scored a massive pf vote, let them enjoy it
Very dull.
Matipa you are very dull. Am sure you must be from Congo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
matipa umwana wa mubuchende
The explanation offered is incorrect, they indeed layed them off (76 workers).
Thanks MCS and the PF.
Mr. Shamyefu Fackson Shamenda, I am appealing to you to you as govenment to turn around the poor conditions of service for the Zambian Miners no wonder these foreign investors have taken advantage of the situation. Please, sit down as a government in conjunction with the Mine Workers Labour Movements and revise certain conditions which are more less like Dog conditions of Service. Why should a Zambian Miner 50 years after independence be subjected to only 2 months per completed year as a base for calculating the retirement package ? I say NO, NO, NO to this, 4 or 5 months is ideal than the current calculation of 2 months no wonder miners are treated like dogs. What do u debate in parliament, why should we up to now be sujected to colonial calculations ? Ba Sata work up, this is our countr
Most of the time we always wonder how the media reports wrongly. So we get surprised how they get it all wrong, two weeks ago a reporter called copper ore as copper oils. KCM relieves the 76 fixed term employees but Mmembe calls it retrenchment and alarms DATA-LESS government. The CEO goes for his other assignment outside the country, some cheap newspaper reports that he has fled. Thats why relying on and replying to media reports can easily sour relationships for nothing.
Zambian Media reports including Zambia Watch Dog, most times give fake reports. Any hearsay, crooked or manufactured lie is reported. Chipo you are right. Unfortunately the government acted on hearsay. That’s the government we have. The working ministers giving hear say report to the president. Of course the president will be upset when given a report without substance – a bad report,
KCM and the other miners are just gone too far. They dont want to pay tax and pay good salaries to Zambian miners but they pay well their expatriates. What nonsense is this? Please dont listen to them…make them pay tax and good salaries.
Peace and Peosperity to Mother Zambia.
@truth hates
suppose they opt to close the mine since it will be unprofitable to effect what you demand for! muletasha ba if colour. a little bit is better than nothing at all.
KCM HAS NOW FELT THE POWER OF GOVERNMENT. BOMA NI BOMA.
IT HAS NOW COME TO YOUR SENSES (KCM) THAT WHAT YOU DID DOES NOT HOLD ANY WATER. UBUTEKO NGABWALANDA NINSHI NABULANDA. wHY ARE YOU NOW SCARED. WE ZAMBIANS NOW NOT INTERESTED IN YOU, KCM.
CONGRATULATIONS TO HIS EXCELLENCY AND THE ENTIRE GOVT FOR THIS QUICK MOVE IN THIS MATTER. THESE FAKE INVESTORS ARE TAKING ZAMBIANS FOR GRANTED. ZAMBIA IS FOR ZAMBIANS AND IF YOU COME HERE TO MISUSE ZAMBIANS, YOU ARE SIMPLY FIGHTING A LOOSING BATTLE.
@Ndelolesha . You are a terrible cadre and not fit to comment on forums like this one. I think you are a lazy bemba ***** whose only career is talking. Fool
This is a cover up by joyce sata at kcm to protect her bosses.She is the neice to the
President and speaks the voice of the Indian bosses.Zambian are not dull people they
understand each and every thing.The last ceo was shifted out of Kcm as soon as MMD
lost election.Kcm has not brought in any money to develope the mines but has used the investment for their own gain by overinvoicing and making the coffers dry.They are
fighting to pay zra the due taxes as they have no intentions to pay them.Even a fool
would understand that in last eight years Kcm has only paid five million dollars as tax.
Iwhen it has produced 12 billion dollars of copper and cobalt.Zambian the time to sleep is over.YOu will find nothing left if no action is taken.It will be to late.
Supposing it is true that no worker was retrenched(Bad selection of wording as if workers came from trenches and not homes), anyway the story goes…..what will happen to those who revoked the work permit?
If KCM is telling the truth, then GRZ must not act from newspaper reports but go and get facts on the ground. Why should it always be the president? Where are the ministers, PSs, MPs councillors?
Ministers (wimps), PuSsies, MoPs… need I say more? That should explain why there is so much confusion… ahem … foncusion!
Politics, economics and social effects at work. Pity to Zambians who want even a small fraction of KCM (1,500) employees to loss jobs. Don’t feel joy in other peoples suffering. U better suggest a reduction in salaries starting with a bigger percentage from top positions and expatriates for the company to save on wage bill.
Hey LT, why are you quite on the Chibolya fracas currently underway in Lusaka. These Pathetic Failures are gonna machete every one in town. People, run for dear lives. There is fire in town. Sata is a failure and he must be told in his face. Let him take his failures to muchinga province. People in Lusaka are serious with development and do not want to be detracted by PF fools.
I Personally, I blame the Zambian setup of government that’ s why Zambia as country shall continue to suffer economically. The Zambian Parliament or rather the so called National Assembly, what really that affect the nation and it’ s people does it provide or contribute? Our Zambian Miners and I mourn at it when I see the mistreatment and injustices they are passing through yet we have a government and a parliament who shoud function as custodians of their welfare. But we only have a bunch of noise makers who have no concern about this. When is the retirement parkage for Miners going to be improved including other better conditions of service ? Yet foreigners come here and reap millions of dollars within a short space of time and go. Shall some onestand up please, and make this a hot…
Just to comment objectively, what has been reported here is the truth. Those guys were engaged on short term contracts when MMS left, a contract which expired quite some months ago, and KCM kept extending in a quest to look for an alternative contractor.
Concerning the deportation of Kumar, another person to monitor closely by Government is David Kaunda. Kumar might be better than this man, and his remuneration depends much on successful cost serving measures, especially retrenchments and prevention of salary increments.
This Statement doesn’t make sense. The 76 have to undergo interviews before they are employed by new contractor but meanwhile they are served with dismissal letters before they can even attend that interview. The question is what if they fail the interview? Secondly, if the new contractor wanted only 76, why only release 76 as if they already had a job? in my view, more could have been asked to attend the interview so that the contractor can only pick the ‘right’ 76 while the rest returns to KCM. By so doing, no one would risk losing the job. Honestly KCM thinks Zambians are fools and can not reason. Sometimes its better to keep quite than try to defend something you cant defend.
They want all employees to be contractors not permanent
Joyce ,are you a Zambian or not supporting Indians to give Zambian permanent jobs to Indians and Zambians casuals .mms guys were getting 4000kwacha now you supported Indians to take them to jchx and getting 2200kwacha
Zambia : KCM denies retrenching any miner after the directive by President Michael Sata ???? ?????? http://www.pslcbi.com/moncler2014.html