Botswana nickel producer starts massive worker lay-off

GABORONE – Botswana’s top nickel producer Bamangwato Concession Limited (BCL) has started issuing workers with retrenchment notices in an exercise that is aimed at cutting operational and salary costs to save the company from collapse.

BCL spokesperson James Molosankwe said the retrenchment process was one of many cost-cutting measures adopted to keep the debt-ridden company afloat. The retrenchment process comes just two weeks after government approved a $100-million loan to recapitalise the company and partially offset a huge debt over-hang.

In a notification letter to the mine workers union, BCL Divisional Manager for Organisational Capabilities, Motsile Sibanda, said retrenchment notices would be issued immediately to all affected workers and representative unions. The retrenchment process is expected to be concluded in June and affect up to 2 000 workers.

“Specific notice of retrenchment to any specified groups of employees will be issued to the affected and communicated to the unions this month with a view to execute all labour reductions within the stipulated time frame. Details of the severance pay, retrenchment benefits and assistance due to retrenched employees will be provided to the affected within the retrenchment agreement.

“They will be clearly stated on the final letters of termination. Redundancies may affect all employees or select groups of employees where a clear and compelling business case to continue with that section of business is prevalent,” Sibanda said in the letter.

Further, Sibanda said the company could not guarantee future re-employment for any of the affected workers, although it remained committed to abiding by the re-call provisions of the re-deployment and retrenchment agreements.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) was calling for the expulsion of the entire mine management for failing to save the mine from collapse. The union also wants the government to provide written guarantees of the system that will be used to calculate the terminal benefits to be paid to the workers.

According to a financial appraisal report submitted to government by management to solicit for the recently issued capitalisation loan, the BCL Group is facing serious liquidity problems arising from suppressed production and depressed commodity prices.