The Post reports that Kansanshi Mining PLC has awarded its unionised workers a 17.5 percent salary increment backdated to March 2008.
The increment followed an agreement between the workers' unions and Kansanshi management.
Briefing the press at Floriana Lodge after a prolonged meeting, labour deputy minister Austin Liato said the mine had also extended the contract of service from two to five years and increased leave passage from K200,000 to K1 million.
"After government intervention, a settlement has finally been reached between the two unions and management. I want to commend the two parties for reaching a settlement because their differences would have resulted in work stoppage at the company," Liato said.
Liato urged the workers now to focus on hard work for the company to be productive thereby create wealth.
He said government was committed to promoting industrial harmony in the country as opposed to work stoppage.
And National Union for Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) president Mundia Sikufele urged mining companies to stop paying their workers peanuts.
"We know that when we make these demands these companies are able to pay, it is not
that we don't know their capacity because that is where we work," Sikufele said.
Sikufele said trade unions in the country would not stop advocating for good conditions of service for its members even if some companies did not want to work with unions.
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