/ 1 January 2002

Harmony, NUM try and hammer out agreement

South Africa’s gold producer Harmony Gold and union officials met on Monday to seek an end to a strike at Randfontein gold mine which entered its second full day, a union official said.

”The aim of the meeting is to iron out differences between us and the management,” National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) said representative Moferefere Lekorotsoana.

”We put forward a revised demand of R700 living-out allowance last week, which the management rejected arguing they do not have a mandate to make a decision on it.”

About 5 000 NUM members out of a 7 000-strong workforce at Randfontein are on strike to back the union’s demands for an increase in the living-out allowance paid to workers living outside the mine’s hostels to a revised R700 from R350 they currently receive.

The union had initially demanded R1 500 rise. Workers may live in the hostels for free.

But Lekorotsoana warned that if Harmony, the country’s third largest gold miner, does not soften its stance on the dispute the strike would continue indefinitely.

Harmony has said if the strike drags on for longer than three days output at the 600 000-ounce-a-year Randfontein mine would be affected. The strike started with the nightshift on Thursday night at 1600 GMT.

Shares in the 3,2-million ounce per year Harmony were 1,9% higher at R162 by 0838 GMT, but underperformed the gold index, which was 2,2% firmer. – Reuters