PHOTO: A handshake after the caution (Labour Min. Cllr Charles Gibson (Left) and AML CEO Jozephus Coenen
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The Minister of Labour has called on the management of the iron ore mining company, ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) to test the local job market in the country before hiring foreign workers to come work for the Company in Liberia.
Minister Charles Gibson noted that the company didn’t need to hire carpenters, masonry, and other local jobs that Liberians are ably capable of doing in the country to pay foreign workers huge salaries and pay the Liberian lower salaries that cannot accommodate them or feed their family on the same job.
Minister Gibson spoke during a discussion with the Chief Executive Officer of Arcelor Mittal, Jozephus Coenen in Monrovia over the weekend.
ArcelorMittal still doesn’t trust Liberians after 15 years
He urged the company’s Chief Executive Officer to review the concession agreement signed between the Liberian government and the Arcelor Mittal Liberia, especially where the agreement talks about 30% of Liberian employees taking top managerial positions after eight years of the company operation and after 15 years, 70 percent of Liberian should take over top positions.
Minister Gibson pointed out that the company has bridged the agreement and deprived Liberian of the opportunity to serve in those areas that was agreed upon in the concession agreement signed.
According to Minister Gibson, some portions of the concession agreement talked about at a certain time Liberian should be allowed to occupy some top positions.
But to date Arcelor Mittal has not yet been able to trust Liberian with those top positions.
Minister Gibson also frowned at Arcelor Mittal management to improve their safety capacity at the company’s operational areas.
He said the safety capacity of Arcelor Mittal in Liberia is very low compared to many countries around the world where the company is operating.
The minister said that it is regrettable to know that during the company safety report around the world, Liberia was not mentioned in the report, something which did not give a guarantee to the employees about their safety while working for the company.
Meanwhile, the Labour Minister admonished Arcelor Mittal management to speed up the housing unit project.
He said he will be delighted to see materials on the ground for the undertaking of the project but urged the company to use local contractors instead of hiring foreigners that cannot speak English, and as such it will take a long time in transferring knowledge to Liberians that will be working alongside them.
In response the Chief Executive Officer of Arcelor Mittal, Jozephus Coenen, spoke of plans to improve industrial health and safety standards at Arcelor Mittal Liberia’s operational site.
Mr. Coenen provided useful updates on actions and follow-ups from his previous meeting with the minister.
He informed the minister of the company’s commitment to providing more employment opportunities for Liberians and plans to ramp up the provision of adequate accommodation for employees in the concession area.
According to him, AML is working hard to improve the safety capacity towards ISO45001 to protect workers from injury, including behaviors, technical equipment, and communications that will guide and automate train operations to avoid accidents.
ISO 45001 is an international standard for health and safety at work developed by national and international standards committees’ independent of government.
The ArcelorMittal Liberia CEO also assured the minister that the company was fully compliant with its employment commitments in the Mineral Development Agreement.
He informed the minister that six out of nine heads of departments (senior management) at AML were Liberians.
He offered to continue to prioritize Liberians for employment at all levels and to address issues that the minister raised about the conduct of some of its contractors.