Redundancy notices given to employees

Union tells 106 workers to report to work

MORE than a hundred workers of Amex Resources Ltd were handed redundancy letters when they reported to work last Friday.

However, executives of the Energy, Construction and Timber Workers Union have told the workers to report to work on today and explained that the notices were defective.

Union general secretary John Paul said 106 workers based in Lautoka and Ba had been issued the redundancy letters from their employers citing “short term economic and structural reasons”.

“The thing is not set up like this where an investor comes in and they have set up a facility and their operations are happening and then all of a sudden in the middle of it they decide to close,” he said.

“So we are looking to Government because we don’t want these workers to lose their jobs.

“If the investor who came in does not want to keep up with their commitment then Government must cancel the arrangements that they have with them and get another investor who employs the same experienced people.

“There are other stakeholders that will be affected by this, not just the workers. They also have to think about the landowners who will also be affected.”

He said the union advised their members to report to work on today and not rely on the notice which was deemed defective.

According to a letter obtained by this newspaper, the company informed the redundant workers that “over the past few years,

ARL has faced numerous incidents of equipment breakdowns with the latest incident in December, 2022”.

“ARL has also suffered huge financial losses amounting to millions of dollars every year since 2019,” the notice said.

“A thorough restructure is needed to turn the table around which would require time.

“It is expected that we would resume our production again in the future.”

Attempts to reach the management of ARL proved unsuccessful when this edition went to print.