[miningmx.com] – SOUTH African platinum producers Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats) sought desperate measures to end a three-month strike by the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU) tabling a basic R12,500 per month cash remuneration offer for entry-level underground employees by 2017.
This follows a meeting today between the CEOs of the companies and AMCU president, Joseph Mathunjwa, as well as AMCU’s national leadership. The meeting is reported to have ended in failure despite the seniority of the figures involved.
Ominously for the sector, the companies said they could ill afford the latest wage increase which equates to a cash remuneration rising between 7.5% and 10% across the various bands of employees.
This compares to the 7.5% to 9% offer made in negotiations under the auspices of the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, and an offer of 7.5% to 8.5% which was made before the strike began on January 23. Including benefits, the employers’ latest offer represents a total cost to company of R17,500 per month.
There had been no announcement from Lonmin at the time of writing, but Bloomberg News said the platinum firm was to issue a statement.
In near identical statements, Amplats and Implats said they could “… ill afford the revised settlement offer”, adding that these concessions “… have been made in good faith … to end this industrial action”.
They forecast that the increase in labour costs, which account for 55% to 60% of annual production costs, would be “catastrophic to the future viability of the compan[ies]”.
It had been made to end “the debilitating 12-week strike that has crippled the platinum sector and has brought untold hardship to employees, their families, communities and the platinum companies,” they said.
The offer currently includes the payment of back-pay related to the annual increase and takes effect from 1 July 2013. However the principle of “no work, no pay’ would apply for the duration of the strike, they said.
