State probes Chambishi riot
By ANGELA CHISHIMBAGOVERNMENT is investigating the wrangles at Chambishi Copper Smelter Limited (CCS) and the subsequent riotous behaviour by workers, which led to damage to company property.
And management at CCS has back-pedaled on its decision to dismiss the workers and instead asked them to exculpate themselves on whether or not they took part in the riot.
About 500 workers at the CCS were on Wednesday issued with summary dismissal letters following their two-day riotous behaviour in protest against alleged poor conditions of service.
Minister of Labour and Social Security, Ronald Mukuma said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that although Government would investigate the wrangles at Chambishi Mine before any action was taken, it was disappointed at the workers’ unruly behavior.
He said the workers should not have taken the law into their own hands because labour laws did not stipulate such action.
“We are spending hours at the tripartite committee discussing the importance of dialogue and yet people are doing the contrary,” he said.
Mr Mukuma said he was disappointed that workers damaged property, which belonged to them as Zambians.
He said labour laws clearly stipulated procedures to follow when there was a dispute, other than the action taken by the workers.
Mr Mukuma said Government’s intervention in the matter would depend on the outcome of the investigations.
“Officials from my Ministry are already on the ground carrying out investigations. The officials have actually been there from day one,” he said.
Mr Mukuma said negotiations between CCS management and the workers were supposed to start before the riotous behaviour.
“I don’t understand why workers had to strike and riot before negotiations commenced,” he said.
Mr Mukuma was also disappointed at some National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) officials who were reported to have incited workers to go on strike.
Meanwhile, CCS company secretary Sun Chuanqi said in a statement the workers will not be dismissed indiscriminately, report MUKULA MUKULA and ALEX NJOVU.
Mr Chuanqi said CCS would be guided by its in-house code of conduct and the country’s labour laws.
“For now, none of the workers has been fired. We have merely given them three days in which to exculpate themselves, and there after, that is when management is going to make a decision. But for now, they still remain our employees,” he said.
Mr Chuanqi said the company’s idea to write summary dismissal letters to the workers was meant to keep them away from work because some of them were intent on destroying company property.
He said it would be unfair for the company to fire its workers that had worked so hard since the smelter project started in 2006.
“We have come a long way with our workers and their services to this company are valuable. In fact, this is their investment, and the challenge is upon them as employees to guard it jealously,” Mr Chuanqi said.
He said management and the union would continue negotiations for improved salaries and conditions of service and that both parties were committed to ensuring that workers were given a salary increase.
Mr Chuanqi said management established that only a quarter of the workers took part in the riot while most of them were unwilling participants who were persuaded by their colleagues to take part.
He was convinced that most of the workers would soon resume work.
By yesterday afternoon, management had given 300 employees their summary dismissal letters while 100 had already exculpated themselves and were working.
A Zambia Daily Mail team that visited the plant found workers taking turns in walking into human resource offices to be interviewed on whether they took part in the riot or not.
The interviews of the workers were conducted under heavy presence of police in riot gear.
The company says it lost property worth US$200,000 following the workers’ two-day protest against alleged poor conditions of service.
Meanwhile, the six NUMAW who were arrested and detained by police have been released.
Copperbelt police commanding officer Antonneil Mutentwa said the six officials were released without charges.
He, however, said police would continue with investigations on who was responsible for the riot.
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