National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) has expressed disappointment with Mopani Copper Mines intention to layoff Miners.
And the Union says the number of miners to be laid off by Mopani is over 400 with the Mine using both voluntary service separation (VSS) and redundancy declaration.
The Union said it is very disappointed with Mopani’s intention especially that the mining firm had recently assured the unions and government that all 600 workers who would be affected after the closure of Mindola and central shafts were to be relocated to other sections of the mine.
Confirming the development to YAR FM news, NUMAW Treasurer Saul Simujika explained that from the targeted 600 miners, the unions have so far managed to negotiate and reduce redundancies to at least 250.
He said outside the 250 miners targeted under redundancy, Mopani has gone further by floating the voluntary service separation (VSS), an exercise in which at least 168 miners had applied and 132 have been adopted.
He said this was after the mine wrote to government through the ministry of Labour notifying it on the Mines decision to Part Company with some miners after the closure of Mindola North and Central Shafts in Kitwe.