[miningmx] — Fewer than one in seven Lonmin employees turned up for work on
Monday as the company aimed to have a peace agreement with all unions in place
later this week.
In a statement issued on Monday, the company said prelimenary figures showed
13% average attendance across all its shafts at the start of the morning shift. “We
understand that employees are waiting for the environment to be safe before
returning to work,” the statement read.
It said there have been incidents of intimidation towards bus drivers overnight as
well as intimidation of Eastern’s workers during the morning, preventing them from
coming to work.
“Management is meeting with the SA Council of Churches again today as well as
with representatives of the striking workers,” the company said. “The objective of
these meetings is to achieve cessation of the violence and a return to work in a safe
and secure environment.”
Lonmin and all the mining trade unions will sign a peace agreement on Wednesday
and then hear the demands of workers through informal representatives.
After a marathon meeting on Friday chaired by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant, the
four trade unions, including Amcu, issued a joint statement in which they committed
themselves to the peace agreement and to steps to stabilise the labour situation at
Lonmin.
The other unions are the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and Uasa.
The agreement will be drawn up by the Department of Labour and the wording will
be finalised before it is signed.
After the signing, the demands of the workers and how these “can be handled within
the framework of the existing structures of collective bargaining’ will be discussed.
The appointment of a workers’ committee to submit the demands to the signatories
is being considered.
The meeting on Friday was held at the Rustenburg Civic Centre and lasted the whole
day. Agreement on the process was only reached late in the afternoon.
One of the problems was Lonmin’s insistence that all the unions should call on the
workers to resume work immediately. This was not acceptable to Amcu. “We can’t
ask them to start working again before attention has been given to their demands,’
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said shortly after the meeting.
Oliphant then offered to have the call to return to work made in her name. She also
urged the parties “to ensure a fully inclusive collective bargaining framework’.
“The parties have committed themselves to finding a quick and lasting solution to
the problem. They also want a healing solution to be found for the recent tragic
events so that everyone can move forward,’ Oliphant said.
– Sake24
