“You'll Be Fired if You Refuse” - Human Rights Watch

Casual Workers at Sino Metals: No PPE, Labor Law Loopholes
Casual (temporary) workers are common throughout Zambia’s copper industry, not just
with the Chinese companies. 137 Because of the low level of employment in Zambia as
compared to the number of skilled workers, companies have found it easy to fill a number
of positions with short-term hires who are generally paid less and not provided the benefits
and allowances that regular employees receive. The country’s employment law says that
companies should not employ a person for more than six months without giving a longterm
contract. 138 However, at present, the law only covers continuous employment; if a
company fires a worker and then reemploys him, the six-month period starts again.
At the CNMC-owned Sino Metals, management has taken advantage of this loophole.
Human Rights Watch interviewed three casual workers who had been repeatedly hired
on three-month contracts, fired for periods ranging from several days to a month, and
then rehired again as casuals. They had each spent over a year with the company—in
one case, almost two years—yet remained casuals with no benefits. A member of Sino
Metals’ management told Human Rights Watch that there were around 50 casual
workers in a similar situation, including 31 in the tailings department alone. 139
More problematic, however, these casual workers told Human Rights Watch that they
received no PPE—despite often working in dangerous departments, side-by-side with those
on contract. Other companies that take advantage of the Employment Act’s loophole still
provide protective equipment to casuals, as with any other worker in the plant. An operator
in the thickener plant at Sino Metals who is a casual worker told Human Rights Watch:
I receive no PPE. I buy my own stuff—generally other workers’ old PPE,
already torn but better than nothing. I work with dust and chemicals, but
I have no other choice. I don’t use a respirator. All I have is the cloth
piece to put over my mouth that one of the other workers gives me. It
gets dusty after a couple of days…. The lack of PPE has caused me
problems. I feel real pain in my lungs. And once I was carrying a heavy
137 For a discussion of casual workers at the Indian-owned KCM, see Action for Southern Africa (ActSA), Undermining
Development? Copper Mining in Zambia, October 2007.
138 Republic of Zambia, Chapter 268: The Employment Act, art. 3 (defining “casual employee” as “any employee the terms of
whose employment provide for his payment at the end of each day and who is engaged for a period of not more than six
months”). Human Rights Watch interview with Venus Seti, assistant labor commissioner in the Ministry of Labour and Social
Security, Lusaka, July 18, 2011.
139 Human Rights Watch interview with Zambian manager at Sino Metals, Kitwe, July 13, 2011.
45 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011