The Minister of Labor, Employment, and Social Security Mohamed Rahman Swarray and his team on Thursday 20th June 2024, made a successful visitation at the Leone Rock mining site.

Swaray started off by highlighting the purpose of his visitation which was essentially to get first hand information relating to the operations of the company, welfare and general working conditions, adding that everyone needs a decent working condition, particularly with the enactment of the new Labour laws.

In his engagement with the workforce, Swaray assured them of his continued support and that, as Minister of Labour, he strongly believes that engaging with staff from various places of their operations is also part of his mandate and that, he always want to know their welfare situation and challenges they are all faced with in their various places of work.

Minister Swaray went ahead and assured them that the meeting is absolutely confidential and whatever they might say in respect of their working conditions, no reprisal action will be taken against them.

The Sierra Leonean workers from various sub companies of Kingho started by thanking the honorable Minister, one CFRG representative stated that management has been terminating staff without no good reason.

Continuing with another representative from the health department, the company has no respect for national workers and promotion has been been done selectively. Adding that there are local job which are giving to foreign workers. Amongst a range of issues were generally on discrimination intimidation and harassment.

The Honorable Minister in his response; stated that issues relating to violence, harassment, disrespect, discrimination and intimidation are unacceptable within the frame work of the Employment Act 2023, he emphasized that there are penalties and sanctions for such offences, adding that any attempt of assault against a Sierra Leonean worker by a foreign staff that worker will be thrown out of site, strongly noting that jobs which are meant for Sierra Leonean workers will not be given to foreign employees.

However, the General Manager and his team continued by thanking the Minister and team for their timely visitation, further assuring Minister Swaray of their company’s commitment to resolve the highlighted issues presented by the general workforce. He added that, in every working companies, the recruited employees are the proven ambassadors, and they must however be treated very seriously. He ultimately concluded that, the Ministry of Employment Labour and Social Security will organize a day workshop for Management to utterly understand the key provisions of the Labour Laws.