news out of vatukoula

After reading a few emperor mines related reports my impression was that part of the reason their why operating costs are so high was that their workforce was fairly inefficient. This to me seems like a readily rectifiable problem provided management takes the right steps. This article just fresh out of Fiji shows that even emperor are taking new steps to address this ... (and how drastic do they sound, " ... employees are being terminated without referral to a medical board ... " lol! )

http://www.fijilive.com/news/show/news/2005/09/28/2713.html

Vatukoula miners walk off jobs
Tuesday September 27, 2005


About 300 members of the Mine Workers Union of Fiji at the Vatukoula gold mines have stopped work in protest against changes to employment conditions.

The union’s president Hamlet Wedlock told Fijilive the members do not agree with changes to sick leave procedures.

Wedlock alleges employees are being terminated without being referred to a medical board for a review if they take more than 10 days of sick leave.

He said the company has done away with the referral to the Medical Review Board after 10 days of sick leave.

He said workers on the day shift stopped work in protest against these changes at 8am today.

He added the union would monitor the situation and it was possible the other 900 members would join the protest.

Emperor Gold Mines acting general manager Greg Shay could not be contacted for a comment.