Kalumbila Minerals Ltd awards a 6.5 percent salary increment across the board for 2020 to its employees

By DERRICK SILIMINA

THE labour movement has commended Kalumbila Minerals Ltd (KML) management and employees for successfully concluding salary negotiations leading to a pay rise.
And KML General Manager Morris Rowe has pledged to “always honour the documents that are signed with mineworkers’ unions.”

KML has awarded a 6.5 percent salary increment across the board for 2020 to its employees, a year after work stoppage disrupted operations in January last year.
This follows the successful conclusion of salary negotiations with three mine unions namely NUMAW, Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) and United Mine Workers Union of Zambia (UMUZ).

The negotiations were held from January 14-17 and February 10-12 this year.

Speaking during the signing ceremony marking the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the mine unions, at the Southern Sun Hotel in Lusaka on Thursday, Mr Rowe said with the help of the unions, and Government through the Ministry of Labour, all the aggrieved parties that were on work stoppage in January, 2019 had since gone back to work.

“I can tell you that from Kalumbila, First Quantum Minerals will always honour the documents that we sign. I have seen over the last few years that I have been leader at Kalumbila Minerals that our relationship between management and workers have improved substantially by means of dialogue and by means of tabling issues in order to resolve them,” Mr Rowe said.

He commended union leaders for their commitment to settle all issues tabled at all meetings during the bargaining process.

“It took us a while to recover from the events of January 2019, but we have recovered as a team. I think the team is way stronger now than the way it used to be.”
Mr Rowe saluted mine site management and unionists that calmed the situation among workers, stating they did a commendable job.

NUMAW President James Chansa has paid glowing tribute to KML management for exhibiting maturity at the negotiating table and for spearheading the entire bargaining process to its successful completion.

Mr Chansa also commended Kalumbila Mine employees and their union representatives for showing maturity and exemplary behaviour during their spirited fight for better conditions of service as elsewhere the bargaining processes had failed.

“We are very hopeful that management being the custodians of what has been signed will implement to the fullest what has been agreed. We will remain watchdogs and ensure that everything is done correctly.”

Mr Chansa stressed that the spirit of dialogue during collective bargaining was different from days past where negotiators banged tables in an atmosphere of fights and conflicts.

“Even as we talk about dialogue, no one should take advantage of this process because much as we may run away from the spirit of fighting, but we have teeth to bite in case someone oversteps the boundary,” he said.

And speaking on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, NUMAW Branch Chairman Teddy Mwasha hailed all stakeholders as whatever had been agreed would be applied accordingly. The process was important for the union members and Kalumbila Sentinel mine.

“After agreeing, we went back to inform and update our members, and I am confident that 90 percent of all the mine workers have received this agreement with open hands and are happy with whatever was agreed,” Mr Mwasha confirmed. – Story courtesy of SUMA SYSTEMS.