The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Nii Armah Ashitey, has urged Newmont Mining Africa, to use dialogue to help solve its redundancy challenges with workers.
�I know you are having some difficulties in an attempt to exercise your rights, I know you�ve gone to the National Labour Commission, and I also know workers are saying they can�t change your operations, but at the end of the day, the problem is about dialogue, and at the end of the day, it is the outcome that is important,� he said.
The Minister was speaking during a courtesy call on him by a three member Newmont Africa delegation led by its Regional Senior Vice President, Mr Jona Ferreira.
He said he recognized the contribution Newmont has brought to the National economy, and also recognized the recent slump in the price of gold, a serious challenge the mines were facing as well as the pending redundancy.
Nii Ashitey said government was concerned with the issue of redundancy, as it involved the lives of workers, saying, �even though redundancy can�t be declared without paying compensation, it is always better to be on the job than to take a package and go home, that is something which is more important to us as government.�
The Employment and Labour Relations Minister said the good relationship between Newmont, the workers and the union should ensure that the review of the redundancy process become a win-win situation for the parties.
�Everything possible is being done to mitigate the effect of redundancy on workers, but there are difficult challenges from the discussion we had, and Newmont should understand what it takes to send people home,� he added.
He said government in future would want to look at alternative livelihood programmes in terms of providing entrepreneurial skills and training schedules for workers, so that when the unfortunate happens, they would not be fighting fire.
Mr Ferreira assured that they would do everything possible to have a collaborative approach with the union and the government to help solve the issue of redundancy.
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