[miningmx.com] – NORTHAM Platinum confirmed it would meet again with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on December 5 in an effort to resolve the four week long strike over wages at its Zondereinde mine.
The meeting would be convened by the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and comes as revenue losses at the platinum company topped some R360m. Basic wage losses totalled just under R50m, Northam said.
Previous efforts by the CCMA to help break the wage deadlock had failed as the commissioner ruled that the parties were too far apart. Said Northam spokesperson, Marion Brower: “I cannot share the company’s approach prior to the process”.
Relations between Northam Platinum and the NUM were strained last week after the union responded angrily to an open letter published by Northam in two national newspapers in which the firm said its 8% to 9% wage offer was final. The NUM said the company had engaged in an “expensive public posture”.
Northam, however, argued in the open letter that it had revised its offer three times and that any further movement of the offer will put the company’s future at risk. “A higher cost base would reduce the company’s profitability which is already strained by weak economic fundamentals, and will – ultimately – affect jobs,’ Northam said.
The union responded: “The Northam leadership thinks that the solution could emerge from the public gallery normally dominated by the company’s think alikes who believe that squandering hundreds of thousands of money (sic) on adverts is the preferred evil than channelling that money to address wage demands and alleviate workers living conditions’. It later delivered a memorandum to Northam’s Johannesburg office.
There is some expectation that the strike could be over sooner rather than later given that South African summer holidays are due later this month. The NUM was in “a difficult position” at Northam and while it would not want to settle for less than it thinks rival the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) could achieve, it likely cannot carry a strike much longer, an analyst said.
The NUM had not responded to questions regarding the proposed talks at the CCMA at the time of publication.
The NUM is demanding an increase for non-core employees of R2,000 on basic wages (equivalent to 22% – 42% at the lowest levels) and an increase for core employees of R2,100 on basic wages (equivalent to 23% – 43% at the lowest level).
