WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM
IN a historic deal, Johannesburg Consolidated Investments’s Western Areas gold mine on Monday signed a wage deal linking increases to productivity for the first time. The deal involves all mining unions and associations representing workers at the mine.
In terms of the agreement, the mine’s south section will work an additional 78 shifts and the north section 54 extra shifts a year, which is expected to lead to a 20% production increase this year.
The deal will be instrumental in saving about 1 500 jobs at the mine, which earlier this year said it has to retrench 4 000 miners. The restructuring process was put on hold pending agreement on wages and productivity.
The Western Areas wage deal is the second reached by a JCI mine, and follows a similar agreement reached at its HJ Joel mine. JCI’s Randfontein Estates gold mine is also in the final stages of negotiating an agreement. The deals follow July’s agreement in principle by the Chamber of Mines and the National Union of Mineworkers to link wage increases to productivity for the first time.