UNIONS representing miners are advocating for the mining sector-based minimum wage because the industry was different from the civil service and other sectors and has its own challenges, National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) President Saul Simujika has said.
Mr Simujika said mine workers unions were demanding for mine sector-based minimum wage because they had learnt bitter lessons from salary negotiations where mining investors had been awarding their employees poor salary increases in the name of not making profits while externalising profits
Mr Simujika said in interview that because of the low minimum wage which cut across various sectors of the economy, some exploitative investors were paying poor salaries which could not sustain the livelihoods of the miners given the high cost of living
Mr Simujika said the current situation where miners were merely being used as tools of production by some mining investors should come to an end in 2023 because unions shall not accept poor salaries at the time when the food basket was at an all-time high.
“I think as unions, as representatives of miners in the mining sector, we are demanding for decency in terms of salary increments. We have had enough of mediocre salaries which have reduced our members to paupers. This is unacceptable.
“Miners were properly remunerated during the time of ZCCM and were proud of being miners and were respected. Even when they get paid, you could see that they have gotten paid. This is why we advocating for mining sector-based minimum wage. We hope it will be much better than the crumbs they are getting today,’’ Mr Simujika said
He said the interests of miners should be taken seriously by any investor intending to invest in the mining sector because they sacrificed a lot for the mining industry to flourish.
