August 14, 2008

Central African Settles Pay Dispute, Strike Averted

By Franz Wild

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Central African Mining & Exploration Co., the London-based cobalt producer founded by former England cricketer Phil Edmonds, said a wage dispute at its Congo operations was resolved without an interruption to production.

Employees had asked for talks with management following a ``misunderstanding'' over their pay increases, Laurent Decalion, president of Camec's Boss Mining Sprl unit, said in a telephone interview today from Kakanda, 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Lubumbashi. Didier Mabamba, local president of the Union Federation of Congo, said earlier today workers at all of Central African's operations had stopped work over the dispute.

``We are not on strike at all,'' Decalion said. ``There was no interruption of production.''

Congo is the world's largest source of cobalt, a metal used to make rechargeable batteries used in mobile phones. The nation's southern province of Katanga also contains 4 percent of the world's copper. Camec produced 760 metric tons of copper and 583 tons of cobalt in May, the company said July 17.

Today's dispute arose because employees thought their pay would be doubled, following a doubling of the nation's minimum wage, Decalion said. Salaries were increased 12.5 percent from June to July, he said.

Boss Mining pays its lowest-paid workers $130 per month, as well as supplying medical care, school fees for employees' children and providing free corn meal, Decalion said. Congo's minimum wage is 29,120 Congolese francs ($52.80) a month.

Mabamba said employees restarted work at some of Camec's facilities.

``The president has spoken to some of the workers,'' he said. ``The others are still waiting for him,'' Mabamba added, without elaborating.

Camec shares fell 1.3 percent to 30 pence at 12:57 p.m. in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Franz Wild in Kinshasa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.