The National Union of Mineworkers on Tuesday accused East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) of ”acting in bad faith” after the mine approached the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), before consulting with the union regarding possible retrenchments.
The mine currently employs 3 000 workers, of whom about 2 600 work underground.
”ERPM is acting in bad faith, because the company has gone directly to the CCMA without consulting with us, the other party.
”ERPM is running through the motions and has already approached the CCMA because they have made their decision and don’t want their process to be hampered,” said NUM general secretary Gwede Mantashe.
Num was reacting to an ERPM announcement on Tuesday, which stated that because of losses sustained from the company’s underground mining activities, mainly due to the negative impact of the strong rand, the company could not avoid a comprehensive restructuring.
Mantashe said ERPM had written a letter to the union on Tuesday, stating it ”intended reducing labour for operational requirements”.
ERPM said in a statement on Tuesday this might affect employees.
”Initial indications from an operational reassessment announced ten days ago are that a comprehensive restructuring has become unavoidable, and that this may affect employees,” the statement read.
Mantashe said: ”ERPM told NUM it wanted to consult in terms of Section 189 (3) of the Labour Relations Act, and had requested the CCMA to facilitate consultation.”
He said the union would engage with the mine and was in the process of scheduling an urgent meeting.
”We hope the mine will listen to reason, and to the ideas we bring to the table. We just hope that they [the mine] will genuinely listen to us…”
Mantashe said the union was not clear on the number of people that would be affected by the restructuring.
ERPM said the company hoped the consultative process with employees and their representatives, facilitated by the CCMA in terms of Section 189 (3), could begin at the earliest opportunity.”
”It is envisaged that the CCMA facilitated process will run concurrently with the deliberations of the consultative forum.”
ERPM management said earlier on Tuesday it would re-focus mining operations underground in an effort to realign production costs more closely with revenue and limit financial losses.
ERPM spokesperson James Duncan when asked how many workers could be affected by this process said: ”We are not prepared to speculate on the outcome of the consultative process … these consultative processes must run their course.” – Sapa