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

While notable that Sino Metals is interested in engaging the union on shift issues, “shift
change” commonly signifies the changeover from day shift to night shift (and vice versa),
rather than the hour length of an individual shift. This provision, while relevant to concerns
about the once weekly 18-hour shift as workers change shifts, does not address concerns
about the daily 12-hour shift. CNMC did specify in its letter to Human Rights Watch that it
was open to negotiations “as soon as possible” regarding the “shift lengths that the
workers wish to have.” 247 Miners, in interviews with Human Rights Watch, indicated their
strong preference for an eight-hour shift—whether blame for stalled negotiations rests with
the union or with Sino Metals management.
Most miners at the Chambishi Copper Smelter (CCS) also work 12-hour shifts, though, in
contrast to Sino Metals, generally only for 20 days a month. The normal routine for
someone in a CCS production department is two days on the day shift, two days on the
night shift, and two days off for every six days. The dozen CCS workers interviewed by
Human Rights Watch all identified the 12-hour shift as a hardship.
A miner in CCS’s hot metal department, a part of the smelting operation where workers are
often in contact with extreme heat, raised basic health concerns regarding the long shifts.
He told Human Rights Watch: “The 12-hour shift is a very bad system. We need eight-hour
shifts so that we can have enough rest. For 12 hours, all we get are three [bread] buns and
a small thing of milk. We need energy to work, we’re working in the hot metal department,
yet this is it. No break, no food.” 248
Venus Seti, the assistant labor commissioner in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security,
told Human Rights Watch that, as unionized workers, those in the copper industry were
free to negotiate terms that would otherwise violate Zambian labor law. He said that the
rigid labor protections were primarily for non-unionized workers, though the Ministry of
Labour could choose to not approve a collective bargaining agreement if the “conditions of
service disadvantage the worker.” 249 He said he could not comment specifically on the
question of hours at CCS and Sino Metals, though the ministry has approved agreements
with these provisions every year.
When asked about complaints over the 12-hour shift, Godwin Beene, the permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, told Human Rights Watch:
247 Ibid.
248 Human Rights Watch interview with miner C in the electrical furnace at CCS, Kitwe, July 16, 2011.
249 Human Rights Watch interview with Venus Seti, assistant labor commissioner in the Ministry of Labour and Social
Security, Lusaka, July 18, 2011.
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