/ 10 February 2009

Planned job cuts at 35 000

Planned retrenchments currently stood at 35 000 for all sectors of the domestic economy, with the platinum industry hit hardest, trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday.

This followed an announcement by the world’s largest platinum producer, Anglo Platinum, that it planned on cutting about 10 000 jobs in the coming year — 6 000 of these would be retrenchments while a further 4 000 jobs would be reduced through natural attrition, the union said.

Nearly 8 000 jobs would be cut in the first half of the year. This included 6 000 contract workers whose contracts would not be renewed as well as 2 000 jobs reduced through natural attrition.

”The remaining 2 000 jobs will be trimmed in the second half of the year through natural attrition,” Solidarity said.

According to the union’s calculations, Section 189 notices had already been issued for the retrenchment of more than 35 000 employees in all sectors.

This included 6 000 Anglo Platinum employees, about 6 000 Lonmin workers and 1 950 Everest employees.

”The platinum industry makes up 14 000, or about 40% of the planned retrenchments,” Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said.

”By the end of 2008 Anglo Platinum employed almost 75 000 workers and contract workers, which means that the company is now planning to retrench more than 13% of its employees or freezing their jobs.”

Solidarity described the effect of the current economic conditions on the platinum industry as ”a crisis”.

”The flourishing platinum price is in the distant past. While the price reached a record level of $2 290 in March last year, analysts predict that the price of the white precious metal could drop as low as $700 per ounce,” Kleynhans said.

”The price could fall even further if the current economic crisis placed additional pressure on the industry.”

Solidarity said it was ”extremely concerned about this” because more jobs could be threatened. — Sapa