Glencore offers 17 pct pay hike to Zambia miners

LUSAKA Feb 2 (Reuters) - Glencore International's Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia has agreed a 17 percent pay rise with unions, almost triple the inflation rate, a labour official said on Thursday.

"We signed for a 17 percent pay rise last evening. It may not be the best given that people's expectations were high after the change of government but this was the highest we could get," Goodwell Kaluba, general secretary of Zambia's National Union of Mine and Allied Workers, told Reuters.

Kaluba said some workers were not happy with the deal but urged them to accept the agreement, which should avert any industrial action. Officials at Mopani were not immediately available for comment.

Konkola Copper Mines, part of London-listed Vedanta Resources, awarded a similar pay increase last month.

President Michael Sata, who swept to power last year on the back of promises to spread the benefits of Zambia's mineral wealth, asked labour unions this week to keep salary demands close to inflation, which slowed to 6.4 percent in January.

He also told cabinet ministers not to interfere in salary negotiations, saying that could scare foreigners looking to invest in Africa's biggest copper producer.

Sata's support base is with the working class in Lusaka and the northern Copperbelt. Before last year's election, he frequently attacked foreign investment, most notably from China, although has toned down the rhetoric since coming to power. (Reporting by Chris Mfula, editing by Ed Stoddard)