A draft social plan to ease the effects of retrenching nearly 700 miners at De Beers’ underground operations in Kimberley has been formulated and presented for comment.
This follows the decision in principle by De Beers Consolidated Mines to close its loss-making underground operations in Kimberley, which have been operating for more than 100 years.
”Since 2003, the underground operations of Wesselton, Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines have been making a loss.
”These losses have also increased due to dilution and the ongoing depletion of existing reserves,” personnel manager Louis Loock said in a media statement on Tuesday. ”As a result, a significant loss for these mines has been forecast for the future.”
Loock said a process of consultation with employees and employee representative bodies, including the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), started on August 12 this year.
”During the consultative process, both parties were given the opportunity to table various proposals,” he said.
Loock said the parties reached consensus on a ”number of complicated and emotional issues”.
”While the retrenchment of 693 employees was unfortunate, in terms of an agreement signed on November 16 between the NUM and De Beers Kimberley Mines, the parties have achieved a model closure of the underground operations.”
Loock said learnerships will be provided to retrenched employees or their nominated proxies.
De Beers said the draft social plan was presented to the Northern Cape provincial government, the Department of Minerals and Energy as well as the NUM for comment.
”The objectives of the social plan were to mitigate the impact of retrenchments resulting from the closure of the underground operations; to improve the quality of life of all retrenched employees and the affected communities; and to promote a new culture of self-employment and self-maintenance,” Loock said. — Sapa