[miningmx.com] – NORTHAM Platinum and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) brought the 75-day strike at the Zondereinde mine to a close after the sides today agreed a two-year wage increase of between 8.5% and 9.5%.
The NUM, claiming it had been triumphant by holding out in one of the mining sector’s most prolonged stand-offs in recent years, said it had agreed to call off the strike after Northam lifted its basic wage offer 0.5% – a step that took its total wage offer increase for core workers to 9.5%.
Non-core workers in the category 2 – 8 levels would receive an 8.5% increase while the living out allowance for both was increased 9%, the union said.
NUM also accepted a R3,000 one-off payment, paid monthly, which it calculated lifted the overall offer by Northam Platinum to some 9.8% to 11.8%.
The South African platinum industry had said last year, prior to wage talks kicking off, that it could not afford double-digit wage increases.
Northam’s offer seems to be at the same level flagged last week, including the R3,000 payment, and does not appear to by the product of a last-minute buckling.
For category 9-10 employees, Northam proposed a 7.5% wage increase for non-core employes and an 8% lift for core employees. The living-out allowance for these employee levels will be increased 7%, the NUM said.
“This has been a peaceful, bloodless and effective legal strike,” the NUM said in a statement clearly still referencing the sometimes violent expressions of industrial action staged by its rival, the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU).
It also fired a last barb (for now) at Northam Platinum blaming it for the protracted nature of the strike even though it was a period of negotiation in which the union only amended its position in the latter stages.
“We further reiterate our call that the board of Northam Platinum must intervene,” the NUM said. “We cannot afford a situation where every round of wage negotiations in this company is settled by a long strike and this is not sustainable,” it said.
Parties will be busy with the cleaning of the agreement and once we are satisfied with the agreement, we will sign it and then workers can go back to work,” the union said.
