Former Debswana Diamond Company employees who claim they left the company after falling ill or being injured on the job are accusing the mining company of dodging from paying them workers compensation.
The spokesperson of the committee for the affected claimants Onkabetse Mathaithai accused Debswana of unfair labour practices saying the company was swindling them of their benefits through unethical practices. “We have met with the Minister of Labour Mr Edwin Batshu and he showed us a list of the claimants which he got from Debswana.
The list was doctored because in some instances some of the claimants were alleged to have been paid when in reality they were not,” he said. Mathaithai said Batshu had assured them that he would take up the matter with the Debswana Managing Director. “We are still awaiting response from the Minister. He had promised to have a meeting with us again following a meeting we had with him just before Christmas last year,” he said. Mathaithai cited instances where claimants submitted their claims with medical reports from independent medical practitioners only for those claims to be reviewed and revised down by the Debswana medical team.
“Those who left their jobs because of disabilities or injuries should have long been compensated but Debswana is playing hide and seek,” he said. In a related development, the committee that represents the claimants wrote to Batshu in a letter dated 23 December 2013 expressing disappointment at the list which it claims was submitted to Batshu’s Ministry by Debswana Management. “After studying the list carefully, we managed to hold a general meeting of the affected claimants and it was realised that there unnecessary discrepancies in terms categorisation from the list we were given at our meeting with the Minister,” states the letter.
The letter says that “it was our observation that the manner in which claims were categorised, the Debswana team in their meeting with the Minister misinformed him as an endeavour to tactically buy time to find means of further exploiting claimants from being fairly paid what was due to them.” According to the letter, “a number of claimants were misplaced under alleged aggravation; cases still being pursued by union, while others are alleged to have been paid when in reality they were not.”
The committee says that it has been mandated to plead with Batshu to help “them meet around the table with a Debswana strong team so that we could have closure over many of the following claims; expedition of payment of claims, claims repudiated by insures, allegedly unreported or claims unknown to Debswana, use of wrong salary in processing claims and properly reported claims with medical assessment.” Responding to Sunday Standard queries, Debswana head of Corporate Affairs Esther Kanaimba-Senai said as far as they were aware, the claimants who met with the Minister of Labour have all been fairly dealt with in accordance with the company’s policies and procedures, some of which arise from their agreements with the Botswana Mine Workers Union.
“We remain committed to dealing fairly with employees and former employees in all such cases. However all this will be done in terms of the relevant agreements, legislations and insurance policies to ensure sustainability well into the future,” said Kanaimba-Senai. She said Debswana has not formally met with the concerned committee as a group and will not take any steps to do so. “We believe that each of these cases deserves to be dealt with individually and on its own merits,” said Kanaimba-Senai.
She added that Debswana also has procured discretionary covers for among others Group Personal Accident, which provides for all of our employees who are injured or killed in accidents on or off duty; it assists by augmenting and extending the covers provided under the Workers Compensation Act; “Debswana goes to great lengths to ensure that there is adequate cover for employees who are injured on the job or otherwise become unable to carry out their duties. We have also procured insurance covers for worker’s compensation, which is mandatory. This cover is implemented by the Commissioner of Labour in terms of the Workers’ Compensation Act and it provides detailed figures for the percentage disability caused by specified injuries and illnesses,” said Kanaimba-Senai.
