adminHWANGE Colliery Company has terminated contracts of five of its 14 top managers while the remaining nine will now serve on an acting capacity as part of a retrenchment exercise which sources said was the beginning of the implementation of the company’s 2013 plans which sought to lay off 1 000 workers.
The company is trying to come up with a lean structure and workforce to help the coal miner crawl out of the woods. In addition, the company has proposed to offer more than 2 000 of its housing units to workers as part of settling salary arrears which back date to more than two years ago.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday News on Thursday, HCCL managing director Mr Thomas Makore said although he could not be drawn into confirming the 1 000 workers targeted, said the retrenchment exercise would start immediately with top management and will cascade to other workers by the end of this month.
In 2013, the company wanted to lay off 1 000 workers but has been struggling to implement the programme due to financial problems. Mr Makore, however, could not immediately name the five top managers as they are still to be informed formally about the intention to terminate their contracts.
In addition, the remaining nine have also been demoted and will now serve their portfolios in an acting capacity.
“The process we are taking or following is that we first of all ask those that want to take voluntary retrenchments to submit their requests then we will consider those and obviously what will inform our acceptance or lack of acceptance is that whether the skill is critical,’’ Mr Makore said.
He added that as of now the board has already approved the termination of the five top managers’ contracts.
The retrenchment exercise, he said, was necessitated by the continued problems that have been bedevilling the company against a background of plunging commodity prices on the global market, which has seen its related products falling between 20 and 30 percent while production costs remained high.
He said the company was negotiating with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to issue Treasury Bills that will offset a debt of about $200 million, being owed to the workers as well as its creditors.
“Another option is to offset outstanding salaries through giving them houses they reside in as ‘handshakes’,” said Mr Makore.
The company has 5 000 houses. The company is also looking forward to converting the debt being owed to Government to equity.
With the three-month ultimatum given by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Walter Chidhakwa at the end of January elapsing at the end of this month, Mr Makore said he felt as management they had done considerably well to get the company on the path of recovery in the absence of working capital.
Online Reporter