LCM chief executive officer, Harry Michael said although the company
had not yet started production, its expatriates comprising 40 per cent
of the labour force were mostly in the training department and would
leave after teaching Zambians the job.
Mr Michael said in an interview yesterday that LCM had brought in
expatriate labour to train the locals so that they could in future
perform the jobs, which were supposed to be done by expatriates.
He said there was need to impart technological skills into the local
people so that they could keep abreast with the latest technology in
the sector.
Labour and Social Security Minister, Austin Liato at the weekend said
the Government had asked the mining companies to reduce on the number
of expatriates to help maintain Zambians in their jobs.
Mr Liato said the Government was concerned about the situation and wanted to see job losses for Zambians as the last resort.
Mr Michael said LCM just started production last week and the majority of the people involved in production were the locals.
He said expatriate labour was expensive and that issues of the
reduction on production costs were an everyday aspect in the industry.
National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (Numaw) president Mundia
Sikufele said the unions in the mining industry were currently meeting
with individual mines to discuss ways of minimising the pending job
cuts in the sector.
Mr Sikufele said in an interview that the union yesterday met Mopani
Copper Mines to chart the way forward. He, however, declined to give
details of the meeting.
We are meeting with managements of the mines to brainstorm and see the
way forward. What we are doing now is fire-fighting, he said.
He said the unions had advised the Government and the mines on the need
to trim the expatriate labour as opposed to the unionised staff.
By Times Reporter
Post published in: Uncategorized