Since last Friday, employees at the Rosebel Gold Mines have been on strike. The complex is flat except from a few facilities. The firing of four employees outside of the established procedures, according to Romario Holband, spokesman for the employees’ association, was the straw that broke the camel’s back and led to the strike. The response from management will determine if the strike continues today.
Holband claims that there is a great deal of employee dissatisfaction on a number of fronts. Certain things are not going as the workforce would like since Zijin, a Chinese corporation, took over. The sick leave policy is a tricky matter, the spokesman stated. The corporation is attempting to “overrule” credentials issued by general practitioners and specialists, to put it simply. A consultant who is not a doctor and has not taken a medical oath is also given access to the medical records of the company’s employees. “A very bad thing,” emphasizes Holband.
Another point is that the new leadership disregarded the code of conduct. The punishment for a mistaken employee was established, among other things, based on this “code of conduct”. Holband claims that it was already biased, but they no longer even employ that. In some situations, dismissal is implemented right away even when there is documentation or a basis. The final straw was the recent termination of four employees and the application for termination. That paper has been blatantly set aside.
According to Holband, the union is now engaged in collective negotiations. The last nine months have been spent negotiating a new job contract. The prior one was set to expire in August 2022. This was a problem long before Zijin took control. The takeover shouldn’t have an impact on the staff. The company put out a plan to get through the interim period, but the workers flatly rejected it.
The duration of the action is unknown. According to Holband, a team from the general manager has been deployed to speak with them. However, the group is not required to solve any specific issues. In order to make decisions quickly, the staff has decided to hold off until the general manager is prepared to address the board. We have grown weary of being passed from pillar to post. The only departments left operating at Rosebel are the kitchen, security, and the medical center.
