After an unprecedented site visitation at the Leone Rock mining Company with Junior, Senior and Management Staff, Mohamed Rado Swaray again proceeded at the Koidu Limited Company a long standing mining Company involved in kimberlite mining activities in the Eastern Province of Kono.
Amidst a collaborative and a reassuring session with Management and Staff, Hon. Minister Swaray initiated the engagement by clearly explaining the Ministry’s intentions of the visit, reiterating President Bio’s Commitment of Providing 500,000 decent jobs for citizens, particularly, for young people in Sierra Leone.
Adding that, it is possible to provide decent jobs only when regular site visitations are done with the good spirit of noting various concerns both from Junior, Senior and Management Staff.
This time, the team’s agenda penetrated on meeting with Management at first instance which setup a well detailed presentation made by a top Staff from Management, expanding on the many successes while citing some challenges which he noted are unavoidable at the moment simply on the exchange rate, also highlighting concerns of diamond and other minerals challenges, which is as a result of the reduction of their prices generally at the world market, citing the Russia and Ukraine war, as one of the causes of the rate massive reduction.
Over and beyond this, Honorable Mohamed R. Swaray went ahead to address local Staff encouraging them to speak up freely on the challenges they are faced with and that nobody should be afraid of losing their jobs for boldly talking to the Ministry about their Challenges they are encountering in their various places of work and that to speak up is a compelling human right, pursuant to Sec 25(1) of our 1991 Constitution and also country’s new Labour laws. This he believes will also help them to adhere to their responsibilities as Labour workers.
A Kitchen Staff Started off by thanking Minister Rado for basically being the first Labour Minister to undertake site visitation, adding that others have always been comfortable in Freetown.
She further stated that there are still concerns with the cost of living especially in recent time. Summarizing on how the prices of essential commodities have gone up both in and out of Sierra Leone.
In continuation, a whole lot of engineering staff made complaints on transportation as a lot of their salaries are basically spent on transportation fare.
They also spoke about risk allowances, salary increase underground workers medical condition, training program for mechanical engineers among other issues; whilst appreciating Management for their general medical care and other conditions of service.
In his debriefing meeting with the top Management to feedback the concerns raised by the Sierra Leonean workers, Mr. Swaray brilliantly and comprehensively spoke to all the issues highlighted by junior and senior workers.
The Management representative who spoke on behalf of the team, noted all the concerns, and furthered that, indeed management understands the Staff’s concerns, and that these issues will be addressed as soon as practicable.
