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Tears Likupe Business Reporter
Falcon Gold Zimbabwe says the job action at its subsidiary, Golden Quarry Mine will have substantial negative effects on its operations for an “indeterminate” period. In a cautionary statement yesterday, company secretary Qubeka Nkomo said while the company followed the legal process in resolving the protracted labour dispute and subsequently won the matter, the company was yet to obtain an enforcement order.

Golden Quarry employees are contesting a 25 percent pay cut effected in July 2013 and seeking the court ruling set aside and have the deduction reimbursed.

“The company has followed legal due process in its efforts to resolve this matter and has prevailed in the resulting court proceedings. However, the company has not been able to obtain enforcement of the court orders resulting from such legal process. The impact of this strike is expected to have a material adverse impact on the operations of this mine for an indeterminate period of time,’’ he said.

Falcon Gold, a subsidiary of New Dawn Mining Corporation, a Canadian listed junior mine, oversees the operations of Golden Quarry, Dainy and Venice mines.

Towards the end of last year, Falgold was also embroiled in a labour dispute with workers at its Turk Mine in Bubi district over outstanding salary arrears of about six months. The dispute saw over 700 distraught workers at Turk Mine staging a month-strike, which ended on December 15 after the matter was referred by the Labour Court to the National Employment Council for the mining industry.

The Labour Court, because the matter at that time was not discussed at NEC level, ordered the workers to return to work pending a determination by the NEC. Citing production concerns at Turk Mine, the gold producer in November last year terminated employment contracts of an unspecified number of workers on fixed term contracts while some on permanent contracts were placed on two months unpaid leave.

The mine’s management referred to the move as “Special measures to avoid retrenchment” and prior to June 2017, Turk Mine targeted to produce 650 tonnes of ore from underground but did not reach the projection forcing the company to revise the target to 450 tonnes, a target, which again was not met. Last year, Turk Mine did not renew contracts of 70 fixed-term workers as their contracts had expired in May after the completion of the work they had been hired.