Sounds rather like threatening someone. RIO !? By M.ZOLJARGAL
Oyu Tolgoi employment termination statement reveals violations
Thursday, June 5th, 2014
Laid off workers of Oyu Tolgoi (OT) sought help from the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions (CMTU), and confederation officials held a press conference to publicize several unfair articles in the OT employment contract termination statements sent to 300 employees last week.
Out of the total number of laid off workers, 200 were contracted workers of OT, while the remaining 100 were hired by subsidiary executor companies of OT, as posted on the OT website.
Businesses must inform their workers about lay offs 45 days prior to the termination of their employment contract, in accordance with the Labor Law of Mongolia, suggesting that the OT contracts should be annulled on July 14.
“No one from CMTU, the Ministry of Mining, or the Ministry of Labor have detailed information about the lay off. Some of the laid off workers showed us the contract termination statement on Wednesday, and several articles seemed to be violating labor laws in a compulsory manner,” said Chief of Energy, Geology and Mining Trade Union of CMTU S.Ganbold.
He highlighted, “The statement said that the workers will earn only their basic wages after receiving the statement, until the contracts are terminated, but OT must provide overtime pay. Also, the statement says any worker who gives away confidential information about the employment contracts will not be able to receive unemployment compensation, which sounds rather like threatening somehow. There are business and company secrets, but no employment contract secrets.”
Rio Tinto has decided to reduce its spending by one billion USD due to problematic business conditions, reported Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag during the “30 Minutes with the Prime Minister” weekly meeting on Thursday. The spending cut resulted in the laying off of 300 workers last week.
Unuudur Daily sources reported that the Prime Minister received this information from member of the Board of Directors of Oyu Tolgoi LLC, Ch.Otgochuluu.
When asked about how CMTU is planning to protect the rights of compensation for the laid off workers, S.Ganbold said, “Rio Tinto problems are not our concerns. But as long as Mongolian workers are serving at Oyu Tolgoi, despite the fact that it is foreign-funded, it will be our concern. We will submit a statement to the Prime Minister in order to ensure compensation for all workers and prevent mass lay offs of more Mongolian workers at OT.”
Only ten workers met with the CMTU officials, while others fear that sharing the statement might prevent them from receiving compensation, reported S.Ganbold.
Officials of the Public and Media Communications Division of OT stated, “We have no information that OT administration will reply to the issue. But we expect that OT will negotiate with administrators of CMTU.”