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BY PHINDA SIHLONGONYANE 

MALOMA - The newly opened Swazi Vanadium plant in Maloma has lost markets and as a result, the poisoned employees will be sent home before the end of this month. 

About eight employees at the plant are reported to be leaving the company in the middle of this month as the company begins a retrenchment process.

The employees, some of which have been tested and found to have been exposed to vanadium pentoxide, have all along been threatened with the retrenchments.

Redundancy
They have now been given a redundancy notice informing them that the retrenchments will be effected not later than November 14 this year.

According to a copy of the notice, the retrenchments will be effected in terms of Section 40 of the Employment Act no 5 of 1980.

Among the causes for the retrenchments which have been cited in the notice is that the demand for Ferro Vanadium in the market is currently lower than the supply, thus negatively affecting the demand for product from Swazi Vanadium which in turn results in a reduction of sales revenue for the plant.

Another reason stated is that the sales and production forecast for the next 18 months indicates that the plant will need to produce only at 50 percent of capacity.

Profitability

"The strong lilangeni (E to US$) impacts negatively on the profitability of Swazi Vanadium to maintain its position in the international market and to remain profitable. It is important to reduce the fixed cost and produce at a lower conversion cost. This will ensure the sustainability of the plant in the current depressed market condition," states Maloma’s general manager Chris Snyman in the notice.

The notice further states that salaries are a major part of the fixed cost (23 percent) and to employ the entire workforce for reduced production will defeat the objective of sustaining the plant.

Employs
The plant currently employs 15 people and has three others in the bargaining unit of the union.

"The company contemplates reducing the current complement by eight, whose reduction will affect employees over the full spectrum of staff employed by Swazi Vanadium," continued the statement.

It has been stated that there are options that were considered to save the situation but none of them were found to lead to the desired improvement on the profitability and sustainability of the company. Among the options were to increase sales which could not be implemented as the company could not forsee an improvement or increase in demand for the product in the following 18 months due to an oversupply in the current market.

The reduction of working hours was going to be successful only if when implemented for a limited period.

The company could not reduce costs as it already operates on a tight lean cost structure and any further reduction will impair the functionality and sustainability of the operation.

Another option that was considered is the transfer of the affected employees to the Maloma colliery but it was found that there are currently no vacancies; perhaps the employees could be employed later on when suitable vacancies are available.

The vanadium plant is a joint venture between Tibiyo TakaNgwane and a multinational corporation known as X-Strata. A sum of E10 million was invested. 

Concerns
The opening of the mine raised concerns from environmentalists who argued that the plant poisons workers following an independent study published in an American journal of industrial medicine in 1999 confirming that some workers in a similar plant in Mpumalanga South Africa were exposed to fifty times the maximum limit of vanadium pentoxide, sulphur dioxide and ammonia. This fear was confirmed by results carried out on some employees by Yonge Nawe Environamental Action group through the centre for occupational and environmental health based in Natal.

When called for comment regarding the retrenchments, Snyman did not want to say anything but simply turned his phone off; it was later switched onto voicemail.

The President of the Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Unions underwhich the plant employees fall Frank Mncina has confirmed meeting the management over the issue.

He said they have engaged on a consultation process with the management.

"We are looking into options that can be taken and the retrenchment can be a last resort," he said. He said they have also talked about the possibility of taking some employees to the colliery. 

Mncina said there are no notices that have been given to the individuals to face the axe at the plant. 

"We are also still to look into how many employees at the plant are prepared to take voluntary retrenchment and we will take it from there," he said.

Mncina said those interested were given this week to apply and it ended on Friday. It could not be established as to how many if any were interested in applying for voluntary retrenchment.

Source: Times Sunday 9 November 2003