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10 May 2011 - Following the launch of the Organisational Alignment (OA) project as part of the Debswana 2013: A High Performance Organisation Strategy earlier this year,  the Company will this week issue employees with letters as per the requirements of Section 25 of the Employment Act which stipulates the following:
 
“Without prejudice to the other provisions of this part in relation to the giving of notice, when an employer forms an intention to terminate contracts of employment for the purpose of reducing the size of his work force, he shall forthwith give written notice of that intention to the Commissioner and to every employee to be or likely to be directly affected by the reduction”.
 
This development follows the completion of the first phase of the OA which includes a business review whose key findings indicate that there is substantial fragmentation and duplication, spans of control are low and that the ratio of core to support personnel is substantially below global benchmarks. The current execution of work shows opportunity for improvement in all of the above. Therefore, the implementation of OA project is likely to result in a reduction in the size of the workforce across all Debswana operations.
 
Management has already engaged its key stakeholders, who include employees, the Botswana Mine Workers’ Union (BMWU) and the Commissioner of Labour.
 
The number of employees likely to be affected will only be known at the completion of the design stage in June 2011 when the final structures would have been completed.
 
Debswana is committed to fully engage all employees, the BMWU and all other relevant stakeholders to ensure full appreciation of the rationale for the project and to appraise them of the progress being made. In pursuance of this commitment, the Debswana Managing Director, Mr Jim Gowans  undertook a series of meetings with employees across the company to introduce this intervention in March 2011. Furthermore, employee briefings, including with Union representatives are provided on a regular basis