ALLAN SECOMBE, Johannesburg | Tuesday
SOUTH AFRICA’S number two bullion producer Gold Fields Ltd said on Monday it had made a revised wage offer to avert Wednesday’s strike, and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would weigh it up.
”We have given the NUM a revised offer and they will take it back to their members,” said Gold Fields spokesman Willie Jacobsz. He declined to give any details.
”We believe our revised offer would take us to where we could settle the dispute,” Jacobsz told Reuters.
The NUM said it would meet Gold Fields and Harmony management on Tuesday morning to weigh revised offers made by both firms.
Harmony was not immediately available for comment.
”Gold Fields and Harmony management will meet with our negotiating team tomorrow morning (Tuesday) and they’ll decide if they will accept the revised offer or not,” said NUM spokesman Moferefere Lekorotsoana.
”The decision on whether to go on strike will be made there and then,” he said.
The NUM and the Chamber of Mines, which is negotiating wages and working conditions on behalf of the gold industry, failed to reach agreement on Friday on wages and leave for workers at Gold Fields, Harmony and Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD).
The NUM gave formal notice on Monday of a strike at the three mines from Wednesday.
Agreement was reached at world number one bullion producer AngloGold and South Deep Mine after the chamber offered 8% increases for higher-paid workers and 9% for lower-paid workers. The three mines offered similar packages, but the NUM was unhappy with their proposal on when to phase in the increases.
The chamber’s spokesman and negotiator Frans Barker said there had been some informal contact between the mines and the NUM over the weekend and again on Monday.
Lekorotsoana said the union, which represents 50_000 workers at the three companies, had not had any contact with marginal miner DRD.
”Durban Deep has been silent and the strike will go ahead there if they don’t come back with a revised offer,” he said.
DRD has warned that 20_000 workers at its operations could lose their jobs if there was a lengthy strike. It has said it cannot afford to immediately implement the NUM’s wage demand.
”There are significant differences because the NUM wants a substantial increase in annual leave, which is a substantial cost to the mines, and they also want the R2_000 minimum in a shorter period than is possible for the mines,” Barker said.
For the mines it represented up to a 32% increase for the lowest paid workers to reach the R2_000 per month minimum that the union was demanding, he said.
The mines wanted to implement wage increases over 18 months.
The NUM is demanding 30 days annual leave for mineworkers. The chamber has offered to increase leave to 23 days from 21. – Reuters