A seminar by the National Pension Scheme Authority held at Luanshya Copper Mines meant to sensitize miners on the amended mode of payments for benefits and age for retirement has triggered mass resignations and applications for early retirement from miners at Luanshya Copper Mines.

Last month, NAPSA held a seminar at LCM to educate miners about the amendments to the NAPSA act and how it would affect them. A Mr. Msoni from NAPSA Luanshya Branch informed the miners that once they reach 180 contributions they would not be eligible to get a lump sum payment but will be getting monthly payments.

“Mr Msoni told us that once we reach 180 contributions, we will not be eligible to get the lump sum payment, we will only be getting monthly payments until you die. Now when we queried him how much that that payment will be, he said it was based on calculations, he was not coming out clearly but later said we needed to visit the NAPSA office on individual basis. So most miners have started resigning so that they at least get their lump sum amount rather than getting K700.00 per month after you retire, where can 700.00 take you in these hard times?” said a miner who was part of the seminar.

The miner spoken to disclosed that so far over 50 miners have resigned in the last one month while over 20 have applied for early retirement fearing that they will lose their lump sum if they wait till they reach retirement age.
Most miners feel that the government was giving them a raw deal by denying them the lump sum. They feel that NAPSA should have first carried out a study to find out how many miners even reach 80 years after retiring.
“The PF government has really betrayed us, this is unfair and the government knows it, I have resigned and I want my lump sum so that I can at least invest my money in something that will give me a better return than getting 700.00 per month” said a miner who has recently tendered in his resignation.
Luanshya Mine has a separate pension scheme with the Mukuba pension Trust in which the Miner contributes 5% of their basic pay while the Mine contributes 25% of the employee’s monthly basic pay. Stakeholders such as unions have hailed the Luanshya Mine pension scheme as one of the best pension schemes in the industry but the government mandatory NAPSA scheme is forcing miners to resign and retire early because they now fear losing their lump sum payment.