Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
9 January 2009
Diamond beneficiation, which employs 3 000 people through DTC Botswana and its sightholders, could lay off workers early in the New Year if sales do not improve, according to the Secretary General of the Botswana Diamond Sorters and Valuers Union.
Barulaganye Khumo says they expect to be briefed about trading conditions and their implications when the industry returns from the Christmas recess later this month.The 16 sightholders took an early break on December 12. They had been scaling down their diamonds uptake, with a good number of them not taking part in the last DTC Botswana sale in November. A poor market response, especially in the US where the effects of the global financial crisis is heavily felt, was cited as the reason. At DTC Botswana, the Secretary General of the DTC Workers Union Jacob Mpasupi says job cuts are likely in 2009 because management was talking to them about the difficult trading conditions over the last weeks of December.
Infact, the situation is so bad that in a bid to save jobs, the union has decided that DTC workers will buy their own uniforms suggested to management to cut down on meals. The company was spending P1.3 million a year on staff uniforms and over half a million pula a month to feed the workers, according to Mpasupi.But the austerity measures suggested by the union are not enough because just before the Christmas break, DTC Botswana's management demanded more cost cutting measures, or job losses would be inevitable, Mpasupi says.They are in the horns of a dilemma: "We do not want to touch employee benefits," he points out, "but there is nothing left we can do now to cut costs furhter."Fears of job losses at DTC Botswana come at a time when 1022 Debswana workers at Orapa and Letlhakane Mines were only saved by the intervention of the Botswana Mineworkers Union (BMU) after the company had purposed to close the two mines indefinitely.
The Secretary General of BMU, Jack Tlhagale, says the situation is still fragile. "The law protects the employer when they need to shut down due to a crisis," Tlhagale says. "They said they might raise the issue of job cuts this January, depending on the performance of the market. They say they are still consulting on the matter. "Hopefully, they will get better advice. After two meetings with them, they have now taken the decision to shut down the mines for only three weeks. We said to them that the fact that there is a crisis in the industry should not translate into panic and an impulsive shutdown of the mines."Already 133 miners subcontracted by Moolman at the Dukwi Mine were laid off late last year, while BCL this week announced the retrenchment of 348 workers.
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