The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will meet diamond giant De Beers in Kimberley on Friday to discuss planned retrenchments, the NUM said.
”The discussions are a continuation of earlier talks on [the] De Beers plan to retrench workers in the province,” said Rivonia Morwakgosi, the NUM’s Kimberley regional chairperson.
In December it was announced that the retrenchment process at Namaqualand Mines and Kimberley Mines had been restarted to give the union more notice, the company and the union said in a joint statement.
De Beers Consolidated Mines issued notices in November 2006, warning of possible retrenchments at the mines.
”Following a series of constructive meetings between the company and the National Union of Mineworkers and in the spirit of joint consensus seeking the company has agreed to withdraw the notices,” the statement read.
A new notice was issued to the union, which re-started the 60-day statutory consultation period from Thursday, December 14 2006.
De Beers said the proposed retrenchments of workers was ”due to operational requirements and in order to return these operations to profitability”. — Sapa