Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) announced on Monday that 4 504 jobs at its North West operations are to be shed.
The announcement follows the conclusion of a 60-day, multi-stakeholder review process that ended on Sunday.
On Monday, according to the company, one last effort to persuade the National Union of Mineworkers to support various job-saving initiatives failed.
”For management the tragedy is that the saving of at least 1 550 jobs at the Buffelsfontein number 10 and 11 shafts was almost within reach,” said Deon van der Mescht, divisional director of DRD’s South African operations.
”Proposals put forward by the National Union of Mineworkers for changed work practices at the two Buffels shafts were agreed by four key stakeholders including management, the Mine Workers’ Union/Solidarity, the United Association of South Africa and Sectoral Electrical Workers Association.
”But for reasons best known to itself the National Union of Mineworkers leadership has failed to sign off on proposals from its own members at mine level.”
Van der Mescht said he was ”bitterly disappointed” that discussions with the National Union of Mineworkers on its proposals in respect of the outsourcing of shafts to operators with proven track records had not got beyond the union’s ”cynical disregard for the real issues at stake, namely job preservation and job creation at three of the affected business units”.
Management believed that had the union been prepared to continue discussions on these proposals, it might have been possible to save a further 1 650 jobs.
National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Moferefere Lekorotsoana said that as far as Buffelsfontein was concerned, what the company was proposing was untenable.
”What DRD is not telling anyone is that they want our workers to go on full calendar operations — that is continuous operations — yet it is an agreement that is only going to be in place for two months. They won’t guarantee for longer. At the end of two months they [the workers] could still lose their jobs after working flat-out.”
Referring to Hartebeesfontein, Lekorotsoana said, ”1 300 jobs are definitely going to be lost but then they say 1 700 can be saved if they are contracted out. If, in the same breath, they say those units are not viable, why would you then want to contract them out? What can the contractor do that the company can’t do? Would they use workers who are paid less and make them work harder? It cannot be accepted. That is why we are not signing with DRD.
”The problem lies with a management that cannot produce a turnaround strategy,” said Lekorotsoana.
He suggested an alternative approach would be for management to put existing workers in self-management teams with specific weekly targets. These goals would be monitored on a regular basis to check if targets were being met.
He also called into question the financial status of DRD.
”If the company was in such bad shape why are people buying all those shares? The auditors indicated DRD is in a good financial position. Yet they are complaining about poverty.”
He said negotiations were deadlocked and consequently some 10 000 workers in North West were preparing to strike from Sunday. — Sapa