â€œYou'll Be Fired if You Refuseâ€ - Human Rights Watch

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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
pipe without PPE, and because I didn’t have the proper clothes that cover my neck, the pipe cut and burned along my neck. 140 Another casual worker at Sino Metals similarly described his problems, along with the company’s efforts to conceal how they treat these workers when Zambia’s former president came for a visit: The Chinese bosses don’t give us respirators or hard hats—nothing. We must provide our own safety equipment or go without. I have had chest pain, head pain, yet I don’t have medical care with the company either. There is no PPE for casuals. The national union has been written [about this], but nothing has been done…. It’s so bad that, when Rupiah [President Banda] came to the plant in March [2011], they put us in a room and locked it. I guess they weren’t prepared for his arrival, I don’t know. I heard later that some other casuals had been told to stay home that day. But we were there at the plant. And they took us into a room and locked it while the president was there, to keep us out of his sight, the casuals without PPE. I was in among them. They don’t even give us gloves, though we handle the copper…. The SX plant is where the copper cathode being produced is located. There are lots of fumes there. When there is something to lift, they call in the casuals. Yet when we go into the SX plant, we don’t get PPE…. Casuals have no rights in general. If you try to get permission for anything, they say no. I wanted to go to my grandfather’s funeral, and they said that if I went maybe I’d be fired. The Chinese boss said this, “If you go, maybe I’ll fire you.” I needed to keep my job, so I didn’t go. 141 A Zambian member of management at Sino Metals confirmed that while the company had a storage room full of PPE, casuals either work without it or buy it themselves—despite “taking positions that are supposed to be held by contract workers and being exposed to dust, noise, [and] to acid and fumes in the thickening plant where leaching takes place.” 142 A Chinese national in Sino Metals’ management, who briefly spoke to Human Rights Watch before cutting off the interview and saying that her boss said she should not 140 Human Rights Watch interview with casual worker in the thickener plant at Sino Metals, Kitwe, July 17, 2011. 141 Human Rights Watch interview with casual worker in the SX/EW plant at Sino Metals, Kitwe, July 15, 2011. 142 Human Rights Watch interview with Zambian manager at Sino Metals, Kitwe, July 13, 2011. “YOU’LL BE FIRED IF YOU REFUSE” 46
Page 1 and 2: Zambia “You’ll Be Fired if You
Page 3 and 4: Copyright © 2011 Human Rights Watc
Page 5 and 6: Company Safety Officers without Aut
Page 8 and 9: Summary Over the past decade, China
Page 10 and 11: Chinese-run Copper Mining Companies
Page 12 and 13: uling in MUZ’s favor on the estab
Page 14 and 15: Recommendations To the Government o
Page 16 and 17: Reward managers and safety inspecto
Page 18 and 19: them as having spoken to Human Righ
Page 20 and 21: I. Background China’s role in Afr
Page 22 and 23: [The Chinese government] supports c
Page 24 and 25: History of Zambia’s Copper Indust
Page 26 and 27: Copper prices rose steadily from 20
Page 28 and 29: for CNMC in 2003—13 years after t
Page 30 and 31: policeman. Although the police inve
Page 32 and 33: underground mining has more than do
Page 34 and 35: After Mwanawasa died in August 2008
Page 36 and 37: quickly requested that the company
Page 38 and 39: of us in planning has our own compu
Page 40 and 41: Economic, Social, and Cultural Righ
Page 42 and 43: problems. In some areas, they shoul
Page 44 and 45: A national-level official at the Mi
Page 46 and 47: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Page 48 and 49: Miners told Human Rights Watch that
Page 50 and 51: While Sino Metals appears to be the
Page 54 and 55: speak further, refuted that anyone
Page 56 and 57: Godwin Beene, permanent secretary i
Page 58 and 59: They have a safety officer in place
Page 60 and 61: frequent, that two to three a week
Page 62 and 63: empowered to refuse to continue wor
Page 64 and 65: injured in a 2009 accident, contras
Page 66 and 67: unsafe, don’t do it.’ If the mi
Page 68 and 69: Best Safety Practices in Zambia’s
Page 70 and 71: Deliberate Failure to Report Accide
Page 72 and 73: 50,000, 100,000 Kwacha to not repor
Page 74 and 75: Problem of Subcontractors at Konkol
Page 76 and 77: are also corruption issues, a serio
Page 78 and 79: Kateka also stressed that the under
Page 80 and 81: Physical Abuse by Chinese Superviso
Page 82 and 83: III. Hours and Overtime Across Zamb
Page 84 and 85: Overtime is supposed to be four hou
Page 86 and 87: “Let me tell you, for people who
Page 88 and 89: almost never paid, even when they w
Page 90 and 91: Even when it is not an emergency si
Page 92 and 93: IV. Anti-Union Activities If you do
Page 94 and 95: Sino Metals still does not allow us
Page 96 and 97: that once such a committee is estab
Page 98 and 99: Intimidating Union Representatives
Page 100 and 101: A union representative at Sino Meta
Page 102 and 103:
exercising or for the anticipated e
Page 104 and 105:
V. Conclusion This report seeks to
Page 106 and 107:
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 350 Fifth Avenue
Page 108 and 109:
hour shifts, though generally only
Page 110 and 111:
收件人 : 人权观察非
Page 112 and 113:
acknowledged by various parties. In
Page 114 and 115:
the wearing of PPE (including those
Page 116 and 117:
common practice in the mining indus
Page 118 and 119:
egistering with the company. Howeve
Page 120 and 121:
Annex II: Copper Price, 2001-2011 1
Page 122 and 123:
2009 Financial Summary for the MSD
Page 124 and 125:
Annex IV: Wages in Chinese and Othe
Page 126 and 127:
Prior to 2008, the differences in s
Page 128 and 129:
Annex V: Salary Breakdown at Sino M
Page 130:
H UMAN R I G H TS WATCH 350 Fifth A
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â€œYou'll Be Fired if You Refuseâ€ - Human Rights Watch