Elias Mhegera, July 2010
CONTRADICTORY statements have been issued in regard to the security measures at the Aluminium Africa Ltd Plant (ALAF) in Buguruni Tazara industrial area.
According to our reliable source currently working at the plant, security measures are not up to the standard taking into consideration that some chemicals that are used at the plant have high chemical concentration and therefore seriously dangerous to human beings.
Our source who is one of workers who attended an induction course in Nairobi said that security measures are far below if he were to compare with what he saw in Nairobi at the Mabati Rolling Mill.
He elucidated by saying that his plant lacks some security gears due to the fact that the management is trying to reduce costs. For example; he cited the fact that the gloves that are provided to workers are of substandard.
However he admitted that some of the security gears are available in the plant as required professionally. He mentioned those as the special boots, helmets, masks, although some of these are few in comparison to the number of workers in the plant.
He criticized the management for a failure to provide regular safety education to the workers due to the fact that the management is more interested in production than the welfare of its workers.
He pinpointed two items as the most threatening to the lives of workers to the workers. He mentioned those as the gas tanks and what he termed as the “zinc hot pot”
In regard to the dangers of gas tanks that are available he said that he has never witnessed any of the on job trainings aiming at alerting workers on the dangers of the gas tanks which produce hydrogen and nitrogen. He claimed that nitrogen could explode once it mixes with air.
The worker who has been at the plant for the past six months, admitted that it was the ALAF in Dar es Salaam which organized for his training in Nairobi but he was surprised that his plant has failed completely to apply measure like those that are taken in Nairobi.
“I was expecting my bosses to apply what I observed in Nairobi; instead I have been subjected to the conspiracy of silence so as to retain my job while knowing for sure that what is going on is incompatible with international safety measures,” he remarked.
In regard to the zinc pot he said that this is supposed to remain hot throughout in order to avoid clogging of the zinc material which render the liquid form metal useless once it clogs.
So under any circumstances the pot is supposed to remain hot, hence the name ‘hotpot’. He warned that the pot is dangerous in the sense that the gases that are emitted are not safe and they cause air pollution.
Moreover he was concerned that the overalls available are not well designed to suit such chemicals if they were to sprout. He was also concerned that there are possibilities of being affected by radiation particularly x-rays and gamma rays.
He also claimed that for the past six months that he has worked in the plant he has never been given a single liter of milk which is another basic requirement.
Responding to these claims, the ALAF-CEO, who mentioned only his name as Sagar said that the management has always been providing the best working gears that are available in the market. On the claim that workers do not get milk he said that this was converted to money.
“We realized that milk was heading us towards a dispute so we converted that into Ths 7000/= which was an agreement between the management and the workers field unit,” he said.
He said that no one has the right to claim of mistreatment since it was his company which sent workers to Nairobi, it was out of the industry’s costs and none of the workers contributed for those costs.
He claimed that some unscrupulous workers have been selling their boots and other safety gears that are provided in the plant.
Moreover he said that his industry has a good reputation in terms of maintaining safety of its workers. He boasted that this was even evidenced by the occupational safety and health agency (OSHA), when their officials visited the plant recently.
He referred this reporter to OSHA for further clarifications. On his side the safety manager Alex Ngata said that his organization has six zones to make follow ups so according to the report of the recent survey it is true that there are shortages of gloves at the industry.
Moreover he suggested that the industry return the provision of fresh milk rather than Tsh 7000 which he said is insufficient. Concerning air pollution he promised to make thorough checkup in order to establish whether the problem exists or not.
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