Staff Reporter
WORKERS have been sent home from Northern Graphite Corporation at the Okorusu Mine near Otjiwarongo. According to workers at the mine, the Canadian-listed company has sent 90% of their workers on retrenchment.
“In March, people were given salary cuts of up to 50%, which were supposed to last for 18 months as the company transitioned from the initial production phase to the construction phase they were promising on LinkedIn and Facebook. Promises were made to workers that there would be no retrenchment. Despite the dire economy and lack of employment in the country, this company has retrenched workers without consulting the government and labour offices. How do we allow these Canadian companies to exploit our people like this?” one of the aggrieved workers said.
According to an official notice received by the workers, the mine will enter the care and maintenance phase for its mine and plant, effective from 1 July 2023. Pav Jordan, the communications officer at Northern Graphite, explained that, as previously announced in their financial statements, the mine is moving forward with plans to relocate their mill to the Okanjande mine site in order to consolidate their mining and processing of graphite in Namibia.
This move aims to reduce their CO2 footprint, improve economics, and facilitate the further expansion of the facility.
“This requires a different set of skills, and therefore we are reorganizing our team to deal with the new scope of our project and operations, today and well into the future. Our intention is to restaff in 2024 once we have completed the relocation of the facility and commissioned it to service customers,” Jordan said.
Okorusu Mine employed close to 50 employees, of whom 32 will be laid off.
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