Barrick Lumwana Mine has reaffirmed its commitment to a zero alcohol tolerance policy on the mine site, leading to the dismissal of twenty employees found in violation of this policy throughout the year 2023.
According to Kasonde Musonda, the Mine Human Resource Manager, these dismissals occurred between January and December of the previous year. Musonda emphasized the mine’s unwavering stance on maintaining a work environment free from the influence of alcohol, with any employee testing positive for alcohol being subject to immediate termination.
Providing additional details, Lumwana Mine’s Occupational Health and Safety Manager, Samuel Chileshe, disclosed that out of the twenty dismissed individuals, five were direct employees of Barrick Lumwana Mine, while the remaining fifteen were employees of contracted companies working at the mine.
Chileshe acknowledged that enforcing the zero alcohol policy posed challenges, particularly among employees of mine contractors. He highlighted the need for heightened compliance awareness and efforts to ensure that all individuals working on the mine site adhere to the established safety protocols and regulations.
In response to these developments, Lumwana Sustainability Manager Christopher Mukala emphasized the mine’s ongoing commitment to safety through the “Journey to Zero” program. This initiative aims to create a workplace environment with zero accidents and incidents, aligning with the mine’s dedication to prioritizing the well-being and safety of its workforce.
A drunken worker like a drunken driver is a danger to other workers …. simply kick him out.
Barrick Lumwana Mine Please come and run our Civil Service. It has drunken workers from top to bottom
You saw the Bemba names listen on the runners of Barrick Mine, and immediately concocted a scheme to use this a tribal take over. HH is doing fine cleaning up the tribal mess you made in the government where you fired all the Lozi, Luvale and Tonga (LLT) people from the government, and hired only Bembas and Nyanja. Sorry, but it is not gonna work. You government did not work for anyone. We are not interested. Go away.
Deja Vu
That’s same as on a farm…….
Stop going under the influence to you farm
How do we theorise about the behaviour of some of our fellow citizens? We’re facing a serious shortage of paid work in Zambia but some who are lucky to have jobs do not want to keep them purely out of love for the bottle. HR managers need to look to government to provide counselling and financial advice to those who need it because we know the social consequences on families of those who become unemployed due to being found under the influence on duty. There will be a social cost to society at the end of the day.
The solution is to continue firing them. What this will do is to effect a cultural change, when people understand that the only thing you are owed is an opportunity, and that keeping a job is your responsibility, which you satisfy by diligence, timeliness and good conduct on your job. Those who were at UNZA and saw how Deputy vice chancellor, Prof Kasuka Mwauluka, ran the institution can attest that workers can be made to change. UNZA was clean and green. People came to work and did their work. This, not the hiring of people because they come from a tribe or a region in the north or the east, is how things are things get fixed and functioning
Some are simply addicted. A person who values his job engage in an unsafe conduct contrary to the company’s safety policy. We tell such people to go away so that they can drink without restrictions.
Many Zambian young men and women, and of course some adults feel like it’s a great achievement to drink till morning. Some will report for work sloshed and brag about the number of crates they consumed. Earth moving equipment is costly, so an accident doesn’t only cost human life but resources as well. I always wonder what kind of people we are. Many Zambians only respect their job when they don’t have one. Hoe many man-hours do we lose because workers report late for work because it was raining? Some don’t even report at all and when you ask they’ll say that there was rain!
Given that only people from two regions of the country have been getting hired in the 30 years before HH came to power, it is possible to isolate the problems you allude to, only to the regions where the workers came from. I am not saying that alcoholism is not a national problem. Yesterday, all of you were defending the fact that the entire national team can come from only 2 regions of the country. Well, they lost. We (the other part of Zambia) paid for their expenses, and they went there and were no-show. Yes, they are the most skilled footballers we have, but perhaps we need a conversation around that point. Why are the skills of football availed only in Lusaka and the Copperbelt?
And there-in lies one of the main reasons why Zambia is still poor/underdeveloped almost 60yrs of nationhood.We’re either drunk,seeking bribes or late bcoz we have no work ethic.
Better they are fired. There are thousands of other sober minded people looking for jobs.
We dont have leadership. So our youth replace that vacuum with boasts about how many crates they can have. Not knowing those beers you down will not get you anywhere but to Leopards Hill fast. There’s no achievement in drinking. Any fool can drown himself in alcohol but he will have achieved nothing. Political leadership is needed. Not Gary Nkombo’s gulp your own poison strategy but workshops by Ministry of Health in conjunction with relevant ministries on the negatives of alcohol consumption
This problem is very high in monze were teachers especially from bakaila area and munyubwe chiefdoms. Ounce teachers come to get their salaries they don’t return until they become bankrupt. I sympathize with the ministry why they keep such officers who receive salary without completing the school calendar. This problem has become worse now under the UPND were these teachers and police officers go in punished.l urge the two ministries to look into this very thorn issue happening in Monze.