[miningmx.com] – LONMIN’S efforts to strike a recognition agreement with the Associated Mineworkers & Construction Union (Amcu) has suffered a setback with the parties poised to enter arbitration, a crucial last stop before protected strike activity can be called.
Lonmin said today a certificate of non-resolution had been issued after failing to agree in talks with Amcu over which the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) had presided.
Fresh discussions are planned for May 23 (Thursday), but if these fail to deliver an outcome, arbitration will then take place.
Acting Lonmin CEO, Simon Scott, styled the discussions “lengthy and complex”, but said the firm remained committed to a solution that “… can sustain peace and stability at our mines and in our mining communities’.
Certainly, Lonmin finds itself fast approaching a crucible with wage negotiations for platinum sector employees due to kick off later this year, and as the company nears the emotion-laden anniversary of the fatal shootings at Lonmin’s Marikana mine which claimed 35 lives on August 16.
A two-day strike in mid-May at Lonmin’s Marikana, sanctioned by neither Amcu, nor the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), also hints that emotions are combustible.
The sticking points in negotiations between Lonmin and Amcu relate to Amcu’s demand for a single bargaining platform. Currently, Amcu is being offered the rights and privileges previously enjoyed by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) insofar as it was allowed to represent workers in the 4 to 9 job categories, with category 4 representing entry-level functions.
Amcu, however, is seeking an agreement that also allows it to represent more highly skilled workers currently enshrined in a separate framework, the Pattison B to C model. Amcu also wants its recognition rights to extend to Lonmin’s other operations, the Limpopo assets, and Karee. This is despite the belief that Amcu has no recognition in these parts of Lonmin’s business.
These demands by Amcu are echoed in Chamber of Mines of SA wage negotiations, Miningmx understands, with the union asking to represent workers both in the gold and coal sectors even though the latter is more mechanised and therefore employees are more skilled (and more highly paid) workers.
Shares in Lonmin were 1.34% weaker at the time of writing, a decline not out of keeping with other platinum stocks which looked sluggish.
Nonetheless, the failure so far to formalise Amcu’s meteoric rise to prominence in Lonmin’s mines does heighten the pressure on Lonmin’s executive staff which have pulled the company back from the brink in recent months, seeing off a takeover challenge from Xstrata, and recapitalising the company’s balance sheet.
This was before a blow-out at Lonmin’s Mariakana furnace No 2 in the first quarter, an event that reminds investors that Lonmin’s social and labour troubles are merey a slice of its risk profile.
