Hwange sacks 55 managers

Source: Hwange sacks 55 managers | The Sunday Mail  May 1, 2016

HWANGE Colliery Company has embarked on a restructuring exercise which has seen at least 55 senior and middle level managers losing their jobs in a move aimed at reducing the company’s wage bill.
The coal mining company is currently sitting on a monthly wage bill of about $3,5 million and the move to trim the managers is expected to reduce salary costs by 50 percent.

Some of the senior managers who have been axed include company secretary, operations director, Information Technology director, marketing and finance directors.

Mines and Mining Development Minister, Walter Chidhakwa yesterday confirmed the development to The Sunday Mail saying the company’s management was bloated.

Minister Chidhakwa said it was important for the company to streamline its senior managers because it was presiding over an unsustainable situation.

“We had to streamline the labour because it was too big because our revenue has been going down and we were not able to meet the salary wage bill,” he said.

HCCL managing director, Mr Thomas Makore last week told The Sunday Mail that the coal mining company had adopted a strategy to ensure production levels are reflective of the workforce.

“What we are doing is to allow the company to be competitive we want to reduce the level of our wage bill from the current $3,5 million and to align it in line with our revenue,” he said.

Mr Makore said at least five senior executives and 50 managers have been shown the door while their exit packages of the senior executives were being negotiated. Currently the company has a labour force of 2 600 and about half of that will be relieved of their duties as part of the company’s restructuring.

In June last year the company commissioned the $31,2 million investment equipment from Belaz and BEML under vendor-finance facilities but the company’s production remained low.

The new equipment was expected to increase production from 300 000 to 500 000 tonnes per month but things did not go according to plan.

Since last year Government has given several ultimatums for the management to shape up or ship out.
During the commissioning of the equipment last year, Minister Chidhakwa challenged the company’s board and management to deliver the expected results as Government was running out of patience.

This has seen several marathon meetings and trips to Hwange in an effort to deal with the rot at the coal mining giant.
Government was committed to allocate more concessions to the coal miner that has lost its dominance to competitors among them Makomo Resources.