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

unsafe, don’t do it.’ If the miners don’t listen to that, if they go ahead, it’s their fault. We
have made sure that this slogan is well known.” Beene stressed that he was a former
miner himself (during the days when the industry was controlled by the Zambian
parastatal, ZCCM), and the industry was tightly regulated. In addition to the low-level
miners, he blamed mine captains—not the companies—for breaches of regulations. 175
Making Good on Their Threats: Firings and Docked Pay
When workers do challenge Chinese managers on unsafe work areas, placing their safety over
the boss’s threat, they may encounter stiff penalties as a result, including lost employment,
written warnings (called “charges”) for insubordination, and docked pay. As noted above, the
inability of workers to protect themselves from such situations violates their rights under ILO
provisions that allow workers to remove themselves from potentially unsafe areas—and
require the government to “take all necessary measures, including by providing appropriate
penalties and corrective measures, to ensure the effective enforcement” of such provisions. 176
Multiple miners at NFCA said that they knew workmates who had refused to go ahead with
work in areas they deemed unsafe and then had their contracts not renewed by the
company when they ran out several months later. A former employee at CCS also told
Human Rights Watch that he had refused the instructions of a Chinese manager in April
2010 to position himself in an area where “fire sparks were coming from the welders,”
saying it was too dangerous. After the specific work task was finished, however, he was
called to a Chinese supervisor. The employee told Human Rights Watch what followed:
I asked, “What have I done wrong?” and [the supervisor] replied, “Don’t you
know you’re not supposed to talk, you’re a slave.” [My boss] and his
supervisor spoke in Chinese for several minutes, and then he said I was
fired. After being fired, I went to the safety officer and took him to the
workplace. Then I went to see the HR [human resources] officer, who
confirmed that he had been to the site where the problem started. He was
very defensive of the Chinese, he didn’t even address the issue of working
near the fire without fire safety equipment…. HR told me to go home, that
they would finish their investigations. I have taken the case to court. 177
175 Human Rights Watch interview with Godwin Beene, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Minerals
Development, Lusaka, July 18, 2011.
176 ILO Convention No. 176, arts. 13 and 16.
177 Human Rights Watch interview with former miner at CCS, Kitwe, November, 15, 2010.
59 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011