OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 9.55am
THE National Union of Mineworkers is preparing to do battle with gold mining firm Placer Dome, which has retrenched some 3000 of its workers at its Placer Dome/Western Areas joint venture mine on the West Rand.
NUM secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and NUM regional chairperson Obed Maila on Friday said that the retrenchments are in contempt of the Labour Relations Act.
Mantashe said the retrenchments are in breach of the Labour Relations Act section 189, because Placer Dome did not consult NUM on its final decision. He said Placer Dome also disregarded the rules and regulations of the gold crisis committee, which called for an independent audit before axing mineworkers. “We are dealing with a bigger force than meets the eye here. We know they are going to resist our attempts to get the workers reinstated, and we are positioning ourselves for a long fight,” said Mantashe.
Placer Dome went ahead with its planned retrenchments after the Labour Court rejected the NUM’s bid for an urgent interdict to stop them. Placer Dome said at the time that: “In passing judgment, the Labour Court stated that the [joint venture] had respected the rights of NUM’s members and … fulfilled its obligations in terms of both the Labour Relations Act and the Gold Crisis Committee process.”
Mantashe, however, said on Friday that the company’s claims that it is losing ground with poor productivity are not convincing. “Initially the gold price was bandied as a reason for retrenchment. Now that the gold price has rallied and held firm in the last two weeks the company said it is not sustainable and cannot keep on the staff,” he said.