GABORONE – All 5 000 employees of the moth-balled Botswana nickel miner Bamangwato Concession Limited (BCL) and its subsidiaries Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC) and BCL Investments will receive their last salaries in October 2016, the mine’s provisional liquidator has said.

In a letter sent directly to the workers’ union late last week, Nigel Dixon-Warren of KPMG said save for a few workers who might be needed in the post-liquidation period, all employment contracts at BCL would be terminated on October 31, 2016.

Dixon-Warren said all workers would receive their last salaries on October 31. The payments due out include outstanding salaries, leave days, notice, severance and repatriation (in the case of foreign retrenchees) packages. However, he said all terminal/retrenchment packages would be paid out after conclusion of the liquidation process, which he warned could stretch beyond the February 2017 deadline set by government.

“It will be necessary for some staff to remain (employed) after October 31, and to continue to work in the post-liquidation period. If you are needed during this time, I will either extend your contract of employment, or offer you a short-term contract. I am trying to make special arrangements for payment to be made to you early so you do not have to wait,” Dixon-Warren said in the letter.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) has warned it could take legal action against the termination of employment contracts, which came just two weeks after government assurances that all workers would be paid their normal salaries until the conclusion of the liquidation process.

BMWU president Jack Tlhagale told Mmegi, a local daily paper, that the union had instructed its lawyers to examine whether the act, by the liquidator, of skipping the union and delivering such news directly to BCL employees in a letter, was procedural. In the event that it violated workers’ rights to pre-consultation, legal action would be taken to stop the retrenchment process.

“That letter is misplaced and should not be coming now. We are going into consultation with our legal teams to establish a proper position and that will determine the action we take. If it comes out that there are violations of workers rights, then we will be going to court,” Tlhagale said.