Scores of workers attached to the Bosai Bauxite company in the mining town of Linden protested this morning outside the company’s main office over a planned retrenchment that could see 49 workers being sent home as early as tomorrow Friday, August 7th.
Armed with placards, the workers voiced their disapproval over the intended move by the company to send them home.
Many of them indicated that they could find it difficult to find new jobs in the community and have no other alternative of a regular income. Some of the workers are calling for there to be some sort of negotiation between their union representatives and the company.
Some of the protesting workers also raised concern about the company still owing them bonus and sick leave money for over two years. One man said he cannot understand how the company wants to retrench workers without settling all payments with them.
The workers marched along Republic Avenue and voiced their concerns to Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, seeking his intervention in the matter.
Senior Personnel Officer at Bosai, Trudel Marks told News Source that the company is not sure why the workers have launched a protest action. She confirmed that the company is scheduled to lay off 47 employees from Friday. But that number could go down as the company intends to meet with the Labour Ministry.
She said the company has been facing a “drastic” reduction of sale and therefore is not in a position to continue having all of the workers in its employ.
The company has been scaling down production because of the lack of markets for the bauxite that it produces. The personnel officer said that with the scaling down of operations, the company has been left with a number of workers who don’t have much to do and although it was hoping not to retrench anyone, it has been forced into the position
The company currently has 589 workers.
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