About 800 workers face retrenchment at BHP Billiton’s Bayside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said company management confirmed that it will be issuing final notices to the affected workers on the weekend. The retrenchments will be effected on April 1.
The development follows Eskom’s demand that big electricity consumers reduce their power consumption by 10%.
Hlangani said the drastic decision to lay off metalworkers comes at a time when Numsa has made earnest appeals to the African National Congress and the minerals and energy parliamentary committee to intervene as such planned retrenchments are connected to the countrywide power crisis.
Rather than ensuring that other feasible alternatives are considered, such as buying big industrial power generators, the resources company once intimated that it plans to relocate its smelters to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the union charged.
Numsa said the closure of smelters in the town would affect more than 20 000 families. It called on the government and other stakeholders to adopt a social plan urgently as the area would be negatively affected.
BHP Billiton spokesperson Bronwyn Wilkison said negotiations were continuing over the issue between the company, the workers and the union. ”We are trying to minimise the impact on workers … some will be redeployed,” she said.
She said the company issued a statement some time ago stating that 400 workers and 500 contractors might be affected, but consultations over the matter were still going on. — Sapa