[miningmx.com] — THE National Union of Mineworkers would be
desperate to regain some lost credibility when it presents the Chamber of Mines’ new
wage offer to striking workers in the gold sector on Wednesday and Thursday.
Workers at South Africa’s major gold mines have for more than a month sidestepped
the Cosatu-affiliated NUM – since its formation in 1982, the dominant force in labour
relations in the country’s mining industry – in a wave of wildcat strikes that have cost
the sector around 8,000 oz in lost production every day.
The Chamber of Mines, representing AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony
Gold, on Tuesday made good on a promise to adjust job categories and associated pay
levels in an offer it claims falls inside the existing two-year collective agreement
signed in 2011.
The increases represent a range of between 2% and around 10% – excluding the 10%
annual adjustments implement as part of the existing agreement in July – and
compare favourably with the offer (12% to 22%, inclusive of pre-negotiated annual
increases) which brought the strike at Lonmin to an end. A downloadable document
with the new offers is available
here:
Whether or not the offer will appease striking workers, many of whom have held out
for more than a month with salary demands of between R12,500 and R18,000,
remains to be seen. When your basic salary is in the region of R5,000, even a 10%
increase can’t add anything significant in terms of quality of life.
NUM nevertheless has two major factors going for it the current scenario: it can
demonstrate its ability to have the ear of employers to negotiate better wages; also,
it can show its position may shelter workers from the risk of dismissals.
Asked whether NUM would be able to convince workers to return to work, union
spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka was quick to point out it is not the union’s job to plea
with employees. “We’ll be presenting the offer [to workers] and give feedback [to
employers].’ The union clearly no longer thinks it wise to use language such as “illegal
strikes’, exactly what it did when the events at Marikana were unfolding.
The offer is also conditional on workers returning to work by the end of the week.
Asked what employers would do should employees reject the offer, Gold Fields
spokesperson Sven Lunsche said the group may consider using the interdicts it has in
place. That includes the eviction of workers from hostels and dismissals.
Gold One International on Tuesday set a precedent in the gold industry when it fired
some 1,400 striking employees at its Ezulwini mine in the West Rand.
It is exactly this growing threat of dismissals, as well as the fact that some workers
haven’t received their full salary since August, which may convince most of them to
return to the mines – rather than their satisfaction with the offer on the table.
The outcome of such a turn of events unfortunately implies that the country’s gold
mines could again face a similar situation in the not-too-distant future.
