Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have been on strike since Tuesday evening at South African junior gold miner Durban Roodepoort Deep’s (DRD, DUR) Bufflesfontein mine, NUM representative Moferefere Lekorotsoana said in a statement.
The strike at the mine in the North West province stems from an agreement reached at the 2001 wage negotiations between DRD and NUM to phase in a R2 000
a monthly minimum wage, if the group and workers met the requirements of a business plan laid out by management, DRD representative Ilja Graulich said.
“We first explained to the union in December (2002) that the requirements hadn’t been met and that the minimum wage of 2,000 rand wouldn’t be paid. The union has rejected DRD’s latest minimum wage offer and has decided to strike,” Graulich added.
Regarding the possibility of retrenchments at DRD’s Harties mine, Graulich said negotiations with the union at the mine were continuing.
“We have had voluntary retrenchments and no forced retrenchments at Harties
at this stage. The number of retrenchments at the mine is likely to be less than 1 000 workers,” he added.
DRD is a medium size gold miner and producers about one million troy ounces
of gold annually. The company has three gold mines in South Africa, namely Bufflesfontein, Harties, Blyvooruitzicht, a 40% interest in Crown Gold Recoveries, it wholly owns the Tolumuma gold mine in Papua New Guinea and has a 19,81% stake in Australian based Emperor Mines. – I-Net Bridge