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

injured in a 2009 accident, contrasted the pressure and threats there with his previous
employer, Chambishi Metals, owned by the Swiss-based Enya Holdings at that time:
If you say, “This isn’t safe,” at NFCA, the Chinese boss refuses you and says,
“You Zambians have no power, just go and work.” Accidents have been
frequent since the Chinese arrived…. I worked at Chambishi Metals before,
and there was a big difference with NFCA. There, what the safety officer said
was final. If I saw something wasn’t safe, I’d tell him, and then he’d say the
area should be cleared out until improved…. The Chinese nature of work is
a slavish way. Friends tell you that there’s a danger as they’re coming out of
shift, yet the Chinese will still force you to go. You’ll be fired if you refuse,
they threaten this all the time… The main accidents are from rock falls, but
you also have electrical shocks, people hit by mining trucks underground,
people falling from platforms that aren’t stable.
In my accident, I was in a loading box. The mine captain, a Chinese boss,
didn’t put a platform. So when we were working, a rock fell down and hit my
arm. It broke to the extent that the bone was coming out of the arm.… It’s
only a plate that holds the arm together. 168
In addition to forcing people to work in unsafe places, certain Chinese bosses appear to
put pressure on workers who are sick or injured—demanding that they return to work,
regardless of health problems. One security officer at NFCA told Human Rights Watch that
he had been threatened with termination several times when he tried to get “sick off” after
coming down with malaria. 169 A driver of the large trucks that transport the copper to Sino
Metals for processing likewise told Human Rights Watch:
When you’re sick, the Chinese will sometimes refuse to give you leave.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter what the doctor says. Once, I was very sick
and told to stay home by the Sino Zam doctor. I had a sick note. The
Chinese boss said he’d give me two days. And then that same night he
called and said, “Report tomorrow.” I had malaria, but it didn’t matter to
him. All that mattered is that they were short on drivers to get the amount of
copper they wanted that day. 170
168 Human Rights Watch interview with former underground miner at NFCA, Chambishi, July 15, 2011. A Human Rights Watch
researcher saw a foot-long scar consistent with the miner’s description.
169 Human Rights Watch interview with security officer at NFCA, Chambishi, November 11, 2010.
170 Human Rights Watch interview with truck driver A at Sino Metals, Kitwe, November 7, 2010.
57 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011