Image credit: Endiama
The diamond company was quoted by Africa21 Digital as saying that the former employees had been demonstrating at its facilities in an attempt to halt the operations of certain mining projects.
The mining projects were suspended operations in 2008 due to the economic crisis, resulting in the loss of jobs.
The former workers want Endiama to pay them wages, while the diamond company claimed that the fact that the workers signed an out of court agreement, which presupposed a certain compensation, ended the dispute.
Endiama said that the former workers had and have no legal-employment relationship with the Angolan state diamond company.
It had for humanitarian and social reasons, made a commitment to negotiate, and later reached an understanding that culminated in the signing of the discharge terms.
As a result of this agreement, Endiama said it would have to make the payment to the National Social Security Institute that will allow the former workers to be integrated into the retirement system, a process that they say has already started.
However, the former workers claimed that they were forced to sign the terms of a document that they now want to renegotiate and have therefore advanced to a lawsuit.
The mediation of both parties initiated by the General Labor Inspectorate and the ministries of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security, and Mineral and Petroleum Resources late last year collapsed in March this year.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
