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Solidarity calls for Harmony retrenchment rethink

I-Net Bridge | Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:22

[miningmx.com] -- Trade union Solidarity on Tuesday made an urgent appeal to the gold company Harmony Gold to consider all alternatives to the planned retrenchment of 2,000 employees at the company.

It said that in terms of a Section 189 notice, Harmony had plans to close three of its four shafts outside Evander.

Solidarity stressed that the gold miner was in a strong enough financial position to avoid the retrenchments and should rather consider alternatives such as transfers to other mines.

The trade union pointed to Harmony Gold's latest annual report, which indicated that the group posted a record net profit of more than R2.9bn for 2009. In addition, the company posted an improved operating profit in South Africa, from a loss of R71m in 2008 to an operating profit of R572m in 2009.

"Harmony must simply investigate the available alternatives and give trade unions and employees the assurance that retrenchments will be avoided. The planned retrenchment of employees at the group's marginal mines is unacceptable," said Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.

"Harmony was aware of the expected lifespan of the mines in question and should have planned accordingly to offer alternative opportunities to employees as soon as the mines' production became marginal and shafts could no longer be operated profitably," he said.

In terms of the Section 189 notice of the planned retrenchments at Harmony's Evander mines, 2,097 employees could lose their jobs. "Solidarity has not been involved in the Section 189 process yet, but is insisting on being included in the process," the trade union said.

Harmony had announced in October that more than 360 employees of the its Harmony 2, Merriespruit 1 and 3, Brand 3 and Unisel shafts outside Virginia would be affected by a restructuring process and transferred to other Harmony mines.

According to Kleynhans, the group's restructuring was not only procedurally defective, but was also apparently a forerunner of planned retrenchments.

Again Solidarity highlighted Harmony's annual report, which revealed an increase in gold production at both the Virginia and Evander mines. "In total, 18% of Harmony's gold this year has been mined at Virginia while 13% was mined at Evander," the trade union said.