Harmony has reached an understanding with Solidarity and the United Association of South Africa on retrenchments at its Free State operations, the company said on Monday.
The gold mining company did not reach any agreement with the third of the recognised unions.
”The discussions with the other recognised union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), ended inconclusively and the union is considering its position,” Harmony said in a statement.
In terms of the the understanding, the effective date of retrenchments would be extended to Thursday. Retrenchments were supposed to take place last Friday.
Earlier this month, Harmony announced it planned to retrench about 4 800 workers in a restructuring process. Restructuring could also lead to the closure of four loss-making shafts in the Free State.
On Friday the NUM issued a statement saying it had reached a deadlock in its negotiations on retrenchments with Harmony management.
The union then declared a dispute with Harmony.
The NUM said it ”had no option but to declare a dispute with the company over the issue of retrenchments”.
The two parties planned to meet on Monday to continue talks. Harmony posted its sixth headline loss for the quarter ending in December. This could be partly attributed to the relatively strong rand. – Sapa