By Septimus Senessie in Kono.
OCTEA Mining Company in Kono District has promoted eleven of its national staff to higher positions at a ceremony in the company’s conference hall, Koidu.
The positions to which some local staff were promoted include the human resource and administrative manager, safety and community officer, shift bosses and foremen - positions which the company said were previously occupied by foreign staff.
The promotion of the eleven workers came in the wake of the company’s staff retrenchment of what many say is the highest number in the history of the company. The retrenchment affected about three hundred national and an unspecified number of foreign staffs.
Issuing the certificates of appointment to the 11 nationals, the general manager of OCTEA Mining, Christo Swarnepoel expressed delight over the performances of the workers over the past six months, which he said was under review. He said the review commenced after the December 2012 workers’ strike action against the management of the company for improved conditions of service which consequently put the operations of the company to a half for about a month.
The GM noted that increase in production and safety measures were “encouraging” adding that management was happy over the rate of production since January to date and for the seriousness of workers towards productions.
He said the local staff have exhibited excellent performance over the past six months when they were designated to act in those various capacities, adding that “we will not regret our actions in appointing those nationals considering the high level of capacity we have provided them with”.
Swarnepoel said the promotion of local staff to key positions in the company was the beginning of the implementation of their “new policy of nationals first”, adding that he would make further appointments at the end of next month if the workers continue to be dedicated, hardworking and sincere.
One of the beneficiaries of the promotions, Julius Aruna who was promoted from Assistant Human Resource Manager and Administrative Supervisor to Human Resource and Administrative Manager for national employees described the promotion as “a move in a right direction. He said the company has clearly demonstrated that both foreign and national staff were equally important in the operations of the company.
