LINMINE terminates 300 workers
-ahead of Omai's contract
Stabroek News
November 7, 2002
Some 300 workers employed in the mines at the Linden Mining Enterprise (LINMINE) will have their services terminated this week under severance arrangements reached between the unions and the government last month.
The termination of the workers is to clear the way for Omai Gold Mines Limited (OMGL) to take over the mining and stripping operations on a contract basis from next month.
A number of them will be rehired by OMGL but as yet no specific figures have been mentioned.
The severed workers are to receive as termination benefits six weeks pay for each year of employment up to a maximum of 104 weeks.
In addition they will be paid a training grant equivalent to 10 per cent of their severance pay. Under the severance arrangements at Bermine, affected workers received two weeks pay for each year of service and a training grant equivalent to the amount of the severance pay. Arrangements were also made to provide the workers with house lots if they did not own one or to exchange the one they had at Kwakwani for another on the coast. The move to contract out the mining operations ahead of the planned takeover by OMGL's parent company, the Canadian mining company, Cambior, is to establish the desired lead-time between stripping and mining so as to minimise the burden the restructured Linmine would face in its stripping, mining and marketing activities.
It is also to help to ensure Linmine retains what share of the market it still has for its products.
