The Labour Court on Friday ruled that Harmony Gold’s retrenchment of 5 000 mineworkers at its Free State mines was illegal.
According to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the court ruled that all the workers should be reinstated with immediate effect.
“The court has agreed that Harmony did not follow the correct process as provided for by the law. What is most pleasing to us is that these mineworkers have retained their jobs. We can now begin a proper process of engaging with Harmony,” said NUM Free State chairperson Tanki Malefane.
Harmony spokesperson Ferdi Dippenaar said the company is extremely disappointed by the outcome of the court case — especially the fact that the court said Harmony had tried to rush the retrenchments.
“We are expected to redeploy the retrenched workers, but that could change as the court ruled that we should show fair procedure. In the next two weeks, we can start all over again,” Dippenaar said.
He added that the company’s disappointment stems from the fact that it started the process of retrenchments more than a year ago and that the union has frustrated the process.
“We still hope to bring this process to a successful conclusion,” he said.
The union said Harmony is expected to reinstate 5 000 mineworkers and pay legal costs.
Malefane added that the ruling by the court is important in that it sends a clear message to employers that they cannot do as they wish.
“We hope that the ruling brings sobriety on the part of Harmony management. We are pleased that we have a Labour Court that can assess cases and make an impartial and fair judgement like this,” said Gwede Mantashe, NUM secretary general.
Attempts by I-Net Bridge to obtain a response from Harmony were unsuccessful. — I-Net Bridge