THURSDAY, 1.30PM
THE Chamber of Mines and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) signed a landmark deal on Wednesday linking wages to productivity after most mining houses had reached agreement with union members to raise gold production. The deals vary from mine to mine, ensuring in some cases that up to 26 additional shifts will be worked. In other cases workers have agreed to full calendar operations.
Workers will be paid a premium for working additional shifts, and will work fewer shifts where agreement has been reached on full calendar operations. A number of Gold Fields mines have yet to reach agreement, while JCI is concluding its final negotiations. The chamber says that mine-level agreements have been reached at mines employing 70% of the affected workforce.
In July the chamber and unions reached agreement in principle, linking wages to productivity, resulting in another 90 tons of gold output in the next year. NUM president James Motlatsi says the deal has been a painful experience, “caused precisely by the drop in the gold price and linking the wage increases to productivity”.