The nationwide strike at South African gold mines is over, the Chamber of Mines said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Frans Baker said the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity trade union have accepted an offer of a pay increase of between 6% and 7%.
The United Association of South Africa, which was not on strike, will respond to the offer on Friday.
Members of Solidarity gave a mandate on Thursday for the cessation of the strike at South Africa’s largest gold producers.
Solidarity members went on strike on Monday night, following the NUM, whose members had been on strike from Sunday.
Workers embarked on strike action in protest against the Chamber of Mines’ wage offer of 4,5% to 5%.
The chamber’s latest offer is for an increase between 6% and 7% for the different post levels. The 2006 increase is based on CPIX plus 1%.
The agreement covers two years and the minimum increase for the second year must be 5,5%.
”Solidarity is pleased that the offer that has been accepted and that it is higher than workers’ inflation, which runs at 5,7% in the mining industry.
”A source of concern is the way in which the Chamber of Mines disintegrated as a negotiating forum. The establishment of a bargaining council for the industry should be a priority if the chaos of the past two weeks is to be avoided in future,” said Dirk Hermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity.
The strike was conducted in a responsible manner and no instances of violence occurred. Workers simply stayed away and withdrew their labour from the mines. The action paralysed the mines, the union added.
Solidarity said it proposes to parties in the chamber that a post-mortem be held on ”things that had gone wrong”, and that a similar strike should be avoided in future.
The strike was the first of its kind since 1987 and also the first in a democratic South Africa in which trade unions united against the mining groups.
In the past, trade unions were played off against one another to limit the efficacy of strikes, the union said.
On Thursday, the Chamber of Mines said the wage agreement represents the product of a mature collective bargaining system — and presents an outcome that the gold mines are well able to live with.
The increases also offer real improvements in wages and conditions of service.
According to the chamber, the process has similarly underlined the importance of collective bargaining through the Chamber of Mines with recognised trade unions.
”The gold-mines wage agreement does signal a recognition by all involved of the particular challenges facing the gold-mining sector, and tracks a trend of settlement in the industry consistent with the need to contain fixed-cost increases on the mines.” — I-Net Bridge, Sapa