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

usiness, we need proof. If you haven’t proven that it was genuinely torn or
damaged during the work process, we’re not going to pay. You have to
convince with proof, otherwise the employee pays. It’s to make sure people
take care of their hard hats, their respirators. It’s the same with loss—if you
negligently lose the uniform, you have to pay. 145
Workers at CCS interviewed in July 2011 acknowledged that there had been a formal
change in the policy, but said that it was still difficult in practice to receive a replacement.
An operator in the smelter at CCS told Human Rights Watch:
It’s better, but it’s still difficult to get a new one. We’ll report defective PPE
to the supervisor, who is supposed to report it to the Chinese and get us a
new one. But many of the safety officers and supervisors don’t do their
work, they’re afraid of the Chinese, they’re afraid of losing their jobs. So we
still don’t get replacements, because they know safety isn’t valued. 146
In its letter to Human Rights Watch, similar to the statements of the CCS manager above,
CNMC described problems at Sino Metals related to workers stealing and otherwise
improperly using PPE provided to them. The letter, in also responding to worker complaints
that the Chinese-provided PPE is of lower quality, states:
Sino-Metals has discovered that work clothes that it purchased from China
are on sale in Chambishi’s markets. Investigations have shown that some
workers sell the work clothes which they had just collected from the company
and show up for work in old and tattered ones; during inspections, they
report that the company has not replaced their work clothes in a timely
manner. In addition, some workers are extremely careless about the PPE from
Sino-Metals. There are many occasions on which we have found that work
clothes issued barely a week before are missing a sleeve, or where the
worker continues wearing a torn pair of trousers. This is not a problem to do
with quality, since most workers are able to use their uniforms for a long time,
with no damage to the two sets of work clothes given to them every year. 147
145 Human Rights Watch interview with Evan Mutali, assistant HR manager at CCS, Chambishi, July 2011. In respect to PPE at
CCS, CNMC’s letter to Human Rights Watch states, “Chambishi Copper Smelter has explicit processes for workers to file
requests for the replacement of, and for their collection of, PPE that has been damaged or lost in production areas; these are
implemented across all work units.” Letter from CNMC to Human Rights Watch, October 8, 2011.
146 Human Rights Watch interview with smelter operator A at CCS, Kitwe, July 16, 2011.
147 Letter from CNMC to Human Rights Watch, October 8, 2011.
“YOU’LL BE FIRED IF YOU REFUSE” 48