Purity Manganese suspends 50 employees

THE labour situation at the troubled Purity Manganese Mine has reached a climax after 50 employees were suspended last week.

The workers were suspended on grounds of holding an illegal strike, assault and desertion – charges they vehemently denied.

The suspension follows the death last week of an employee, 33-year-old Charles Tuandi, allegedly from injuries sustained when he hit his arm against a window on the company’s premises.

Tuandi was off duty at the time of the incident. General secretary at the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) Ebben Zarondo said that apart from refusing to recognise the union, the company had grossly violated the labour laws of the country in their treatment of workers.

The union leader said that leading up to the mass suspension, the Israeli-owned company had informed employees last year that it is in a bad financial situation and that it had unilaterally cut their normal working hours by half. He said the company closed as early as 27 November last year until 12 January 2015 and workers did not receive their salaries. They were only given pocket money that would enable them to report to work.

“At the end of January, employees were still forced to go off for two weeks without any salaries and upon requesting what is due to them, they were confronted by police officers called in by the company.

“The delays in payment resulted in workers incurring debts and defaulting on payments and ultimately being listed as bad creditors. The workers pension subscriptions which were deducted from their salaries never reached the service providers, and the policies were cancelled for defaulting,” he explained.

Zarondo said that these issues had been reported to the ministry of labour but no action had been taken against the company. He said the charges against the employees were just excuses to get rid of them.

This is not the first time the company has been in the news over labour-related issues. Employees have long complained about several unreported injuries on the mine.

Among other malpractices the company is being accused of is transporting of employees in vehicles that are not roadworthy, forcing workers to operate mining equipment at night without adequate lighting and a brazen disregard of the workers’ safety.

Employees told The Namibian that in the mine’s 15-year existence, there have been five deaths of employees who were injured on duty, most of whom the company refused to compensate. All cases that were reported to the police were mysteriously dissolved,” said an employee who refused to be named.

One of the employees, Naftali Kaviyu (35), who is also on suspension, said he lost three fingers on his left hand in 2013 while operating a concrete-mixer for Wilru Investments, the joint venture company of Purity Manganese that specialises in brick production.

“The company has not compensated me on this because they refuse to take responsibility, saying the injury was caused by my own negligence,” said Kaviyu.

Executive manager at the company Asi Eretz confirmed the mass suspension.

“The disciplinary action date has been scheduled which was done procedurally and lawfully. The company reserves its rights,” he said. Eretz, who declined to discuss the circumstance around the suspension only said the company does not have a recognition agreement with the MUN.

He also denied that there were a number of unreported cases of injuries and deaths of employees on duty.

He further said Kaviyu’s injury was not the concern of Purity Manganese as he was injured while working for Wilru Investements. “Wilru is a separate company, we are not in a joint venture with them,” he said.

The hearing of the employees is set for 17 March.

Wilru’s executive chairman Rick Kukuri could not be reached for comment.