STOP SLAVE WAGES FOR MINERS – NKANA MP

NKANA Member of Parlia ment Binwell Mpundu has demanded that Government should consider compelling mining companies to be pay ing miners at least US$500 as minimum monthly take home wages.

He accused giant mining companies of mistreating their workers by paying them slave wages despite making super profits.

Mr Mpundu said this yes terday during the Vice Presi dent question time in parliament.

He said the disparity be tween local miners and the so called expatriates is too wide and should be corrected.

Mr Mpundu accused min ing companies of paying ex orbitant wages to expatriates at the expense of Zambians who are doing the actual job of extracting minerals.

"The take home pay for just 60 expatriates that the min ing companies are paying is enough pay over 7,000 local miners, which makes me sad as Member of Parliament from a mining constituency,” he said.

He said over the years, miners have been treated as cheap laborers and that there should be an attempt by the new administration to change the minimum wage to favor miners.

Mr Mpundu said Govern ment should consider ad justing the minimum wage for miners because the wages mining companies are cur rently paying as take home is too little considering the work that they do to keep the country's economy afloat.

Meanwhile, government has urged union leaders in the mining sector to be on top of things and demand what is rightly due to their members.

Vice president Mutale Nalumango said unions should engage mining com panies because government can only come in if they fail to agree.