FUAMAH, Bong – The Bush Chicken has confirmed that China Union Investment (Liberia) Bong Mines has asked the Labour Ministry to cancel dozens of work permits for Chinese workers in the employ of the company.

A letter addressed to the Minister of Labour, dated on April 18, 2016, showed that the company currently employs approximately 42 Chinese workers. A source close to the China Union, who spoke to this news outlet by anonymity, said that if the Labour Ministry grants the company’s request, only 23 Chinese nationals will be left working at the mining company.

Liberian law requires companies to write to the ministry to provide notification whenever non-Liberians possessing work permits have been terminated.

When The Bush Chicken contacted Allen Fu, China Union’s Public Relations Officer for comments, he only responded via text message and denied the claims.

“I temporarily took charge of all Chinese in the employ of China Union and haven’t sent any request to the Labour Ministry,” Fu maintained.

He also declined to state the number of active work permits issued under the company, saying that such information did not need to be published.

In an interview with Labour Minister Neto Lighe, he confirmed that the operations of the company had slowed down but said the company had not completely shut down.

“You can slow down some aspects of your operations, but you still have things going,” Lighe said. “There’s work going on there because you won’t be paying people and they’re not doing anything.”

According to a report submitted to the Labour Ministry at the end of the first quarter of 2016, the China Union at that moment had 476 employees.

The China Union, along with other concession companies like ArcelorMittal, have been downsizing in the wake of falling commodity prices on the global market. The company had earlier this year laid off 117 employees.

At the time, a letter signed by the China Union’s human resource director, Sally Shao, said, “China Union is constrained to carry out the redundancy due to the current situation on the world market in the price of iron ore and to also protect the Liberian economy and friendship.”

Jefferson Krua contributed to this article. Featured photo by Zeze Ballah