[miningmx.com] – OVER to mines minister, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, who has made his first task the resolution of a platinum industry strike no-one else seems able to break. Talk about a baptism of fire.
By way of illustration, look no further than the tax evasion row earlier this week. The flare-up gives an eye-through-the-keyhole glimpse of just how quick the relationship between employers and the Association Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) can turn to rancour. The smallest kerfuffle opens the deepest of rifts.
The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) has seeded the notion with AMCU that platinum firms transfer their metal at discounted prices to marketing subsidaries which then sell it offshore at market-related prices.
The implication is that platinum companies avoid paying full tax. If you believe this, then it’s easier to believe that when platinum firms say they can’t pay larger salaries, they must be lying.
The accusation provoked a sternly-worded response from Impala Platinum (Implats), Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), and Lonmin.
“Amplats refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms and views the inflammatory and unsubstantiated allegations in a very serious light,’ the company said.
“We do not tolerate fraud and corruption and comply with all legislative and regulatory requirements governing our businesses. All taxation activities are subject to careful assessment by the company’s external auditors as well as the country’s tax authorities,’ it said.
It also asked AMCU to focus on the efforts of Ramatlhodi: “The company has heeded the minister’s call for all parties to show leadership during this process. The company asks that AMCU does the same and refrains from making unsubstantiated and inflammatory comments at this sensitive time.’
The engagement with Ramatlhodi is a strong indication that the Labour Court’s mediation has largely failed, although mediation continues. The Labour Court will, however, continue to play a major role in the strike going forward, not least because it will on June 2 decide whether to support AMCU’s attempts to stop platinum mining companies communicating its members.
And on June 5, the Labour Court will hear another matter launched earlier in the year by AMCU which seeks to overturn the interdict granted to the gold companies which prevented AMCU callling a strike in that sector.
According to Johan Theron, spokesperson for Implats, the AMCU strike was always likely to be protracted as the union was set on the notion of having both gold and platinum mines on strike at the same time.
Were that to fail, and were the Labour Court to decide platinum firms are allowed to continue polling and liaising with employees, AMCU would seem to be increasingly isolated. Might, then, it consider finding a way forward instead of continuing to frustrate the mediation and arbitration is thrown its way?
According to BDLive, one solution might be “interest arbitration’. Common overseas, according to the newspaper, interest arbitration asks of the parties to voluntarily adhere to the mandatory judgement of an arbiter in the interests of a wider group. In the case of the platinum strike, the wider interest is the economy.
Employers don’t fancy interest arbitration though. They think the span in positions between themselves and AMCU is not settled by meeting halfway. A 20% wage increase remains as uneconomic as the 30% to 50% wage demand of AMCU is insisting upon.
Another route to resolution may be for Lonmin to take the matter to the Labour Court challenging whether AMCU had strayed from its mandate to improve the wages and benefits of its workers.
For its part, the Labour Court is well placed to consider the merits of Lonmin’s claim which would be to question whether the strike, now into its 19th week, is actually working for employees, or whether AMCU is pursuing its own political survival.
This kind of claim has never been tested in South African courts before, however, so the process would take time and may end in the Labour Appeal Court. The mines could be shut by then; well, Lonmin’s operations certainly. The UK firm is running out of cash hence its decision to re-open its processing facilities.
Mine closure is the last possible route; the last because it would set the platinum companies in direct opposition to the government which needs the mines to provide employment and foreign exchange.
The other means to an end would be the slow trickle-back route which is why the June 2 judgement in the Labour Court is important. Allowing workers to liaise with employers could see a slow return to work. The process is thought to be underway at Amplats for instance. Eventually a trickle might become a flood.
As for the minister’s inter-ministerial “technical’ team, there are risks for the platinum producers.
According to Theron, the aim is to demonstrate why AMCU’s demands cannot be supported by employers regardless of AIDC beliefs. This could mean platinum companies open their books in order to share proprietary information. They don’t do this easily as it creates future vulnerabilities.
It was notable that during the debate with the Department of Mineral Resources on the restructuring of Amplats’ Rustenburg mines in 2012, the company decided to exclude the National Union of Mineworkers for exactly this reason.
